The War of Olympus
by Eraleigh Aminah
Summary: Kylie Wolf was just brought to camp and learned she was a demigod. Now she learns about a prophecy. Along the way she meets new friends, new enemies, and new freaks. Concerning the prophecy in the end of TLO. NicoXOC. OCXOC. Spoilers for TLO. R
1. I Get A Lift On A Damned Chariot

**A/N- Okay, this is two years after the events of TLO. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover aren't really in this, so if you wanted to read about that, sorry. Enjoy!**

"Pop Quiz!" my teacher, Mr. Wendel, announced. I was in Latin class, and I was the only one who didn't groan. The thing was, I was great when it came to Greek myths, despite my dyslexia and ADHD. The only thing I _was_ good at…when it came to school. Not kidding.

I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Kylie Wolf, and I'm a fourteen-year-old freshman. I live in Manhattan, and go to this public school near my apartment, where I live with my mom. My dad's dead, or at least that's what my mom says. I don't believe anything she says. She used to be an actress, and I've never had a strong bond with her. After I figured out the truth from one of the lies she told, I haven't trusted her.

I grinned lightly at the memory, it was funny how I found out. You see, it was raining out and...oh, nevermind. But it was hilarious, I swear.

I shook out my short fiery hair, and looked down and my quiz. _Pfffttt_. Easy. It was on the birth of Apollo and Artemis. One of my favorites. I was done in four minutes. It only took that long because of my dyslexia. Five questions…Okay, kind of pathetic, but still…

Everyone else seemed to be done. Okay, why did he spring that test on us? It was easy. He asked a guy named Ben to collect them and he did, quickly too. And then—get this—he gave us free time. Odd. No teacher ever gave us free time. Cool teacher.

They rest of the day was kind of boring. Okay, completely boring. Absolutely nothing was happening. I didn't even get too many nasty looks from the other teachers. Besides Mr. Wendel, they all hated me. I don't even know what I did. I was a decent student most of the time; I mean, I tried my hardest. Oh, whatever, the world is biased.

I went home after that. My mother and I lived in a decent sized apartment. It was actually alright, because my room was facing east, so I could watch the sun come up. I rise with the sun. In winter, I always wake up really late.

I dumped my stuff in my floor. The room was painted light yellow with gold designs. I wasn't a huge fan of art, but my mom said it fit my personality. It wasn't too bad, so I didn't care.

"Hey, Kylie," my mother appeared in the doorway in a party dress. She was going out to a club. "I'm going out tonight." Thank you, thank you. "Be good, and don't go into the living room. I just got new furniture, and I don't want you to break it right away." She also said some other things, but I didn't really listen.

When she left, I took out my backpack, emptied it, and packed a couple extra pairs of clothes. Operation Run Away From Home, Phase 1, complete. Okay, bad name, I'm not great at thinking those up. But it didn't matter what it was called. I just needed to get away from this place because my mom was the worst in history. I think I'm going to go west.

I grabbed two water bottles, ten granola bars, some crackers from the kitchen, and my Ipod (I love music). I also brought my toothbrush. Okay, I'll admit, I have an obsession with my teeth being white. They're pretty white as it is, anyways. Back on topic.

Once I had all of my stuff, I crept down the fire escape. So far, so good. When I reached the bottom, I looked around. I didn't see anything, so I kept going. When I made it onto the street, I was trying to hail a taxi when some kid ran into me. He had dark hair and eyes, and olive colored skin. He was being chased by some type of creature with a lion's body, some wings, and a regular head. It looked like a Sphinx, you know, the ones in Greek mythology?

Anyways, when the kid ran into me, I stumbled and fell. I guess the kid realized I had slowed him down and he wouldn't be able to outrun the monster, so he pulled out a sword from where it rested in its sheath. It was maybe two and a half feet long and black. And when I say black, I'm mean the type of darkness something is when you're holding your hand and inch in front of your face, waving it, and you can't see it. It was creepy.

"You won't get away that easily, child of Hades," the monster cackled. I had pressed myself against the walls of a building. I was so freaked out I barely had any time to think about how strange it was that there was a monster calling the kid a child of Hades. That was really…weird. But the monster was creepier than its words.

The kid slashed his sword at the monster. He had a real intense look on his face, like he was going to die. Well, to be fair, the monster was pretty impressive looking, but so was his sword. I mean, it was pitch black and really intimidating. They starting fighting and I finally looked away from the scene.

It was then I realized that no one else noticed that there was a freak monster and a adolescent with a sword. Normally there would be police swarming the area if something like that happened, but we were only getting a few strange looks, like the teenager only had a fake sword and was in combat with a punching bag.

The kid stabbed the monster and it turned to dust. Then he looked at me. He had a strange expression on his face, like he was trying to figure something out. He seemed to decide on something, and sheathed his sword.

"You have to come with me," he said.

"Um…no. I don't know your name and I just saw you kill some freaky animal. I think I might be safer _alone_."

He sighed, rolled his eyes, and shook his head. I crossed my hands over my chest. I could be very stubborn if I wanted to.

Suddenly, the kid grabs my arm. He doesn't look it, but he was very strong. When I struggled, he didn't react at all. I wasn't that weak! With his free hand he grabbed some gold coin, tossed it on the ground where it dissolved into the cement (is it just me, or were things getting even weirder?) and said something that sounded like he was summoning a damned chariot. Oh, how reassuring. Needless to say, I wasn't too excited about that.

A gray taxi appeared and an old women popped her head out of the window and asked where we were going. "Two to Camp Half-Blood," the kid said. Alright then. He shoved me in the taxi and let go of my arm. I rubbed my wrist where he had been holding it. That felt better.

I looked ahead and realized there were three old women in the front seat. Why would old women be a part of a taxi service? I didn't really care as long as they could drive.

"Put on your seat belt," the kid said. I decided he needed a new name so I started calling him Dark Kid. Well, I'm not very good with words.

"Instead of doing that, how 'bout I get out of here?" I suggested. The taxi started moving. Ah, shoot. It was about ten seconds into the ride when I realized why I had to buckle up. I did, thankfully, or else I would have tasted leather.

The old women were arguing. They said stuff like "Wasp, I want the tooth!" or "Tempest, I'm going to drive into the river if you don't give me the eye!" Oh no.

"She doesn't have an eye and she's driving?" I yelled, horrified, at Dark Kid. He looked a little sick but nodded like it was normal.

"Don't worry, we get our money back if they crash," he said. I shot him a look.

"That's supposed to make me feel better?!" I screeched.

"Dear, be quiet, we're arguing over who gets the eye, and we can't hear each other over your screaming," the lady on the right said. I'm pretty sure my eyes were as huge as saucepans. I looked at Dark Kid. He shrugged like that was usual.

I was clutching the seat so hard my knuckles were white. I was starting to feel a little sick. We lurched again and freaked out. I grabbed Dark Kid's arm in panic.

"Make them stop! Or…do something!" I complained.

"Don't worry, the Gray Sisters have been doing this for…years."

"Yes, three thousand years!" the lady I had learned was called Anger said.

"We've been running a taxi service longer than anyone else!" said the one called Tempest.

"We know everything about this city!" screeched the one called Wasp.

"I can't see anything though, Tempest, so I don't know what street I'm on!" exclaimed Anger. They got into another fight about who should have the eye. Wasp grabbed it from Tempest, which was gross. When she was holding it, Dark Kid shot out his hand, stole it and stuck it into Anger's eye socket.

"Hey, no fair!" Tempest and Wasp chorused. Anger cheered.

"Stupid heroes. They have no respect for anyone," Wasp said crossly. I didn't have enough time to ponder what she meant. Anger had slammed her foot on the brakes, and I thought we were going to do flips. Dark Kid pushed me out.

The gray taxi zoomed away, back to the city. They had left us on a hill with green grass and a pine tree at the top. There was something gold glittering in the branches and a huge dragon thing that was wrapped around the evergreen. This day just kept getting worse.

**A/N- Okay, that took forever to write. The Gray Sisters are hard to write. **

**Please review! **


	2. I Meet The Wine Dude

**A/N- I'm back! Alrighty, since I forgot the disclaimer, I'll do that now:**

**I, unfortunately, do not have the brilliance of Rick Riordan! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut up.

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Dark Kid led me over the hill. I tried getting away, saying, "No way I'm going near that dragon thing. Oh no. Absolutely not." He rolled his eyes and dragged me along anyways. The dragon barely even looked at us. Um, is it just me, or is that a little strange? I mean, why have a dragon on the top of the hill, guarding it, if it can't even guard well? But that's just my opinion.

It was probably six, and considering it was June, it was kind of cold out. Once we were at the top of the hill, I could feel a wind was blowing from the east. When we were up there, I could see everything below. There were maybe 20-something cabins below. They formed a rectangle shape. There was also a few buildings, a pavilion, a fire pit, an amphitheater, and this big house. Dark Kid led me towards that. Once we were there, I saw a, well, centaur. What's with all the mythology stuff? And the creepy taxi? You know what, I don't even know if I want to know.

There was also this guy in his late thirties maybe with curly black hair. His face was pudgy, and he looked like he drank a little too much wine. "Oh, another one? That's fantastic!" he said with fake enthusiasm. "If I had it my way, she would go straight to the harpies, but Chiron wouldn't like that. Anyways, Nate de Argemo, give her the tour and put her in the Hermes cabin. She'll be claimed soon, I figure she's about thirteen."

Nate de Argemo? What a weird name. Oh, whatever. The centaur freak's name was Chiron, and I figure that's a little worse.

"It's _Nico di Angelo_, sir. Nico, not Nate," Dark Kid, or Nico, I guess, said, a little mad looking. I guess this had happened before.

"Whatever you say, Nick di Avo." Wow, that guy is annoying for an adult.

"Ah-hem," the centaur said. "I am Chiron, the activities director here at Camp Half-Blood," he explained, talking to me. "What's your name, child?"

"Um…Kylie. Kylie Wolf." I was a bit uncomfortable.

"Oh that's nice, Kayla Waft. Now go run along and play. Or you can play pinochle. You don't look like you would be very good, though." When I looked at the pudgy-faced man again, I realized what he was wearing. He had a bright orange track suit with purple tiger stripes. I almost burst out laughing.

"Well, Mr. D, I think we should explain everything to Kylie first," Chiron said reasonably.

"That would be nice," I mentioned. Nico smirked. Wow, I didn't know he was capable of any type of smile!

"Sit down, dear," Chiron said. I did. Then he started explaining everything. "Have you ever heard about the Greek gods?" he asked me. When I nodded, he continued. "Well, then you'll know that in the myths, they had many children with other gods and mostly mortals. Now, the gods still exist today, but mortals don't know about them for the most part. They followed the Flame of the West, which today exists in America. The gods haven't changed much in the past millennia, and they still have plenty of children with mortals. This camp is for those children. We train them so they can go out in the world and fight monsters. It's a safe haven, if you will."

I looked at him with disbelief. "So, my dad isn't dead?" Chiron shook his head.

Seeing my expression, Nico butt in. "Kylie, the gods were immortal. They didn't die, even though people stopped worshiping them. They still are what holds the world together. Mount Olympus is now on top of the Empire State Building."

"…So that's why those old ladies in the taxi said they had been driving heroes around for three thousand years?"

"You brought her here in the Chariot of Damnation?" Chiron said, surprised. Nico shrugged like it was nothing. Chiron gave me a sympathetic look. When I thought about it, I realized I had heard his name before.

"Hey, are you the Chiron in the myth, who trained heroes?" I asked. Chiron's eyes twinkled. He nodded.

"Hurrah, she's catching on. Now, I have a feeling I can beat you this time. My hand is lucky."

"And you must be the god Dionysus! That's why you looked so red in the face!" I exclaimed. Nico laughed, but managed to pull it off as a strange sounding cough. Dionysus narrowed his eyes at me.

"Be careful what you say. I'm all-powerful you know. But still, I guess it's not as bad as the time when I was called the 'wine dude'." Dionysus gave Nico a glare. I had a feeling that he had said that.

"Um, yeah, let's go," Nico said. He dragged me away from the porch. Wow, third time today he's dragged me somewhere. Once we were far enough, he said, "You do _not_ want to go around saying stuff like that to the gods. They have terrible tempers. Anyways, I have to give you the tour."

He brought me to the cabins in a rectangle. They were all different, the only similarity being the brass number on each door. One of the cabins had obsidian walls and green torches burning. Another was completely gold. One had a grass roof and a ton of plants. There were two on one end that were very majestic looking. Nico told me about them.

"At Camp Half-Blood, there are a ton of demigods. We have a cabin for most of the gods here, and that's where their children stay. Some are honorary, like Cabin 8, and Cabin 2. Those are for Artemis and Hera. Some of the cabins, numbers 13-24, are only one or two years old. They were added after a huge battle between the Olympians and the Titans two years ago. You see, Kronos was able to rise back up because of demigods who didn't feel loved and the children of minor gods. The minor gods didn't used to have cabins, in fact, they were barely honored anywhere. They joined Kronos' side and almost managed to overthrow Olympus. To prevent it from happening again, the big hero during this whole scenario, Percy Jackson, made the gods swear on the River Styx to claim their children and make the lesser gods feel important."

"Oh, wow," I said. "What cabin are you in?" I asked.

"Cabin 13," he answered, his face darkening. "Hades' cabin. Funny, right, since 13 is an unlucky number?"

He seemed a little depressed at the fact. I was good at understanding facial expressions, and I could tell that his father being Hades was a sore spot. "Oh…Where am I staying?" I asked.

"Cabin 11," Nico said. "Hermes is the god of travelers, so he takes all the undetermined campers. It means you haven't been claimed yet. It used to be way more crowded in there, and they actually rebuilt it because it was so run down. It's in better condition now."

He led me in. It was accommodating enough, with many bunks and many dressers. A couple of the bunks (there were 18) were empty. Nico put my stuff down on it. I hadn't even known he had taken it after he fought a Sphinx. I noticed a girl on a bunk in the back, sharpening a dagger.

"Hello," she said. "I'm Avery Holmes, daughter of Hermes. What's your name?" She was pretty, with cute blond hair and blue eyes. Avery was short, maybe 5'1 and had fair skin and freckles. She was smiling and seemed very bubbly.

"Um, I'm Kylie Wolf," I told her awkwardly.

"Nico di Angelo."

"It's nice to meet you, Kylie, Nico," she said. "Most of my siblings have archery practice, but I'm not very good with a bow." She smiled, like it was no big deal.

"Oh shoot, I have archery with Hermes!" Nico groaned, like this wasn't the first time he had missed. I had a feeling it wasn't. "Avery, Kylie's new, would you please show her around for me?" Before she had a chance to answer, he ran off, muttering about how the instructor (apparently someone from the Apollo cabin) was going to kill him.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me," Avery gushed. She dragged me out of the cabin, and told me which ones had cabins. She listed some minor gods like Eros, Hecate, Iris, Eris, Morpheus, Hebe, Nike, Nemesis, Asclepius and Aeolus.

I was very fascinated by how each one looked. I have already mentioned what some of the cabins looked like. Hebe Cabin had fountains and was white and gold. Nike cabin had wings over the entrance and the walls looked like fireworks were going off. Nemesis was the color of dried blood and it was kind of shiny. Iris was probably my favorite because it was a misty color and when you looked at it from different angles you could see rainbows.

Avery also showed me the different buildings. "That's the armory, you'll probably need to go there soon. Um…that's arts and crafts. That's where the Hephaestus kids work. That's the camp store." Avery led me the forest and explained how Capture the Flag was there every two weeks. She showed me the archery range and the mess hall. Or pavilion. There was no roof, though.

"Um, why isn't there a roof? It could rain."

Avery giggled. "That's what I said last year, my first year here. But most of the weather can't get in here. The storms and fires we've been having just pass over."

You see, the weather has been kind of crazy. In some places there are droughts to rival the ones in the 1980s. Other places are being hit with hurricanes and many states were flooded. Reporters went crazy about the messed-up climate. I supposed it was pretty handy having a refuge.

We went back to Hermes Cabin for a bit and then a conch horn sounded. "That's the signal that's it's time for dinner," Avery informed me, smiling (of course). "Let's go eat."

At dinner, Avery introduced me to some cabin mates. The counselors for Hermes were Connor and Travis Stoll. They seemed really mischievous. All the other cabins had one counselor. Nico was his cabin's counselor because he was the only one in Hades. He looked a bit lonely, sitting at the Hades table. Avery had explained that each person had to stay at their own table though.

We could make anything appear for our drink. I just got water. Then Avery continued to explain that we made offerings to the gods because they loved the smell. Hey, I'm not going to judge them. Whatever floats their boat.

Chiron made some announcements about Capture the Flag on Friday. After that he told us to enjoy our meal. Everyone was digging in, I'll tell you that. It was _really_ good food. After my crazy afternoon, it was nice to have something to eat.

After dinner, we headed over to the bonfire. On the way, Avery introduced me to her friend Seth. She had spotted him and pulled him over. "Seth, this is Kylie Wolf. She's new, and undetermined. Kylie, this is Seth Gray. He's from the Hecate cabin." Seth was pretty tall I'd say. I was 5'5 and he was a few inches taller than me. I'd say Nico would be one or two inches taller than him though. He also had chestnut colored hair, dark, navy blue eyes, and a strange smile.

"Nice to meet you," he said, shaking my hand. Then he turned and walked off in a swirl of his robes. He had a staff, you know, the ones that look like they were made out of roots. But at the top there was a little orb that was being held in place.

I asked Avery why he had a staff. "Oh, you know how Hecate is the goddess of magic?" she asked me. When I gave the affirmative, she said, "Well, Hecate's children also know some magic and things like that. They can do stuff like people do in books about witches. Seth's staff is a gift from his mother."

That seemed pretty sweet to me. The campfire was pretty cool. The Apollo Cabin led the sing-along, which were fun. I quickly learned that on a good night like tonight, you had to back away from the fire a bit. I think we got up the fire up to maybe fifteen feet. It was pretty cool.

Afterwards, we headed back to the Hermes cabin. The Stoll brothers announced lights out and we went to sleep. I'm pretty sure that I was asleep before my head hit the pillow because I was so exhausted after today. But it hadn't been that bad. I just wished I could have seen my mother's face when she got home and realized I wasn't there.

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**A/N- I didn't really like the ending. I'm sorry if the story dragged on. I had so much fun coming up with ideas for the new cabins and things like that. I didn't even mention all of the descriptions I thought up. Here's a few more—**

**Morpheus Cabin: Made up of fluffy clouds that change according to the weather. They're solid though, even though they spin.**

**Hecate Cabin: Like the book said, it's made out of magical stones. Kind of like the ones on a dungeon floor. It crackles with energy. The inside has cauldrons and things like that.**

**Eros Cabin: Sky blue with little red and pink hearts all over. It also has gold glitter on it.**

**Um…yeah. Please review! I love CC, and I do not love flames. **


	3. I Learn About Doomsday

**A/N- Thanks for the reviews! They are love. But so is Nico…*dreamy sigh* Yeah, well, back on topic. **

**Disclaimer: Yeah, I created PJO and the prophecy. You know what, now that I see those pitchforks, I'm just going to run away. Haha, Rick Riordan owns everything. I own only my OCs.**

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During the two days, I quickly learned that I was terrible with a sword. I guess it was pretty hilarious. The whole Hermes Cabin was in the arena, training. Connor and Travis Stoll were showing us some moves. Then we paired up and had to practice a few moves ourselves. Avery, thank the gods (my god slang it getting better), paired up with me.

My sword felt kind of unbalanced in my hand even when we were starting out. That's because we couldn't find a good sword when we were trying them out. Chiron had estimated about a size 4, but it hadn't worked out too well.

Avery had started easy, which is a good thing, or else I wouldn't be here. She took a kind of slow swipe at me and when I was trying to block it I ended up falling down. Connor and Travis came over. "Well, you're crap at this," one of them said. I shot them a glare, but I guess it didn't matter. I had learned that they were pretty blunt. They were nice enough though, and one of them helped me up.

Alright, maybe it wasn't that funny. But, well, Avery was laughing. Then again, she just laughs a lot. That could be it.

I wasn't terrible with a dagger. I wasn't great either. I was decent, that was it. But at least I was able to use it.

When we went running with the dryads I wasn't terrible either. In fact, I could almost keep up with them. But, that seemed a little weird because, well, they're _trees_. I didn't exactly feel like an Olympic champ.

I wasn't too excited about our first archery class. I mean, I sucked at everything else, and I wasn't expecting to be any better at this.

Chiron taught archery. Apparently he was very accurate. Well, when you have thousands of years, you get pretty good.

Anyways, the whole Hermes Cabin (sixteen people, including me) was there. We lined up at the range. It was two people to a target. Again, I was with Avery. We had kind of become best friends. She was so likable it was hard not to hang with her. A couple of times we also talked to Nico, but I had quickly realized that he kept to himself mostly.

Well, Chiron had basically repeated the rules and left us to do whatever. I guess he only repeated himself because these kids had a knack for disobeying orders. Avery had rolled her eyes at him and then instructed me on how to hold a bow. Avery couldn't shoot to save her life, she said, but she knew the process.

"So then you pull back the string and let go. The farther back you go, the more power. You have to make sure to release at the right time, or else the arrow won't go anywhere but the ground by your feet." Avery was a pretty good teacher. She explains things very well. She might be terrible at archery, but she still told me the basics.

I pulled back the string and let go. I barely needed to think about it. I felt like I had been doing this my whole life; it seemed like a second nature. When I got over the shock of how right it felt, I looked at where my arrow had landed. It was smack dab in the center of the target. Okay, that was just _too_ cool.

Avery looked sharply at me. That's, like, the first time I've ever seen her serious. "Do that again," she ordered me.

I did. Then I shot a few more off, too. Every one landed in the center. I mean, a couple fell out because they all landed in the same spot. Now I was kind of freak out. How could I be that good? I hadn't even held a bow before. Avery breathed in harshly, but she wasn't looking at the target, she was looking above my head. _What on earth?_

Following Avery's gaze, I looked above me. I could make out the image: a bow, surrounded by a gleaming gold light.

Chiron trotted over, but he didn't look surprised. "It is determined," he stated. The Hermes Cabin knelt all around me. A few pedestrians who were near did as well. Alright, is it just me, or is this a little strange?

"Apollo," Chiron continued. "Slayer of Python. Hail, Kylie Wolf, daughter of the sun god."

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After archery I moved into the Apollo Cabin. To me, it was absolutely breathtaking. All the walls were a gleaming gold and the inside had a platform in the back of the room to play music. I had learned to play the flute when I went to school at home, but here they had all types of instruments. They even had a few lyres, which I knew were sacred Apollo, my dad. Wow, I've never been able to call someone 'Dad' before. I feels amazing.

While I was admiring the cabin, someone walked in. I vaguely remembered him as the Apollo Cabin counselor. Avery had pointed him out the first day. I'm pretty sure his name was Garret Young or something. He looked about seventeen or eighteen and had a big smile. Unlike me, though, he had golden blond hair. He had amber eyes, like me. The weirdest thing to me was that he was my half-sibling. (Of course, maybe that's just because he seemed so average.)

"Hey," he said. "Chiron told me we had a new camper. I guess I'll tell you about everything we do around here, 'cause we do a lot of things." Then he gave me a bunk and explained what we did on campfire nights and how we helped take care of the wounded in the Big House. Then we got an expression on his face that clearly said _'let the fun begin'_. "And," he said. "You have to learn how to play the lyre. It pretty much comes naturally, so don't worry."

We walked past the rows of bunks and he picked up the instrument. He showed me how to play it. I got a hang of it pretty fast. To me it was like eating is to anyone else. I learned the basic songs as quickly as I learned to sing.

Pretty quickly, the conch horn blew. I hadn't even realized the whole afternoon had past. Actually, I had barely noticed the rest of the cabin come in during break. There were eleven others besides Garret and I. Most of them had golden hair, like Garret. A couple others had the same fiery hair as I did. A few had cerulean blue eyes, but most of ours were amber. And we were all very tanned.

During dinner, I sat next to two of my half-siblings: Ethan Dole and Laura Henson. We talked a lot. It was strange having siblings, especially when the father you shared was a Greek god and you all inherited basically the same traits. I liked it though. I felt like I was…home.

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The next day, Friday, passed very slowly. That's because everyone was waiting until we could play Capture the Flag. My siblings had explained everything to me. I had talked to Avery earlier, and she seemed really excited too. Apparently this was the best part of camp life.

The evening finally arrived. "Alright, cabin," Garret said when we lined up by the door, "we've allied ourselves with Athena, Poseidon, Hades, Nike, Iris, and Hermes. Annabeth's posted some of you as border patrol. The rest of you are with me. We're going in as a diversion. Basically, try to get caught. Nico di Angelo will be sneaking in to grab the flag. Uh, it doesn't really matter what everyone else is doing. Although I _am_ surprised Annabeth didn't post Percy as anything, but whatever. Maybe they felt like relaxing."

They plan seemed alright to me. I mean, I had seen Nico sneak up on people before. Well, actually, I didn't _see_ him, but he had snuck up on me when I was picking strawberries. Trust me, there isn't anything for, like, sixty yards in the strawberry fields. He was the perfect person to grab the flag and sneak back around. Plus, we were a diversion, and I could only assume there were going to be other groups.

On the way there, I met up with Avery. She was talking to someone, a boy. He was average height, and had sandy colored hair and bright green eyes. And when I say bright, I mean _bright_. They were, like, gleaming. It would have been creepy, but it actually looked really nice. His eyes were, like, the perfect shade of emerald green to pull it off. Oh great, now I sound like I'm obsessing about this guy's eyes.

Avery saw me and her eyes lit up. "Kylie, over here!" she called. I jogged over. "This is Kole Parker," she said, introducing us. "Kole's from the Nike cabin. Kole, this is Kylie Wolf. Apollo." You know, it always seems like Avery is talking to someone. Or making a new friend. If you asked me what I thought about anyone else like that, I would call them a no-good fake, but Avery actually had a ton of true friends. The level of her perfection was aggravating.

Kole seemed like a pretty cool guy. He was the only kid in the Nike cabin, as of now, so he was a counselor. We talked for a longer time than I talked to Seth, but he didn't really say anything, so that probably doesn't mean much.

I joked to him that since his mother was Nike, he better win the game for us. He grinned and said, "With pleasure."

After talking with the two of them for a bit, I walked over to Garret to get my assignment. "Uh, border patrol," he told me. "You just need to stand by the river and make sure no one gets past you. It's really easy, you'll be fine. Just watch out for the Ares cabin, because Clarisse has an electric spear. And they just hate new campers."

I took my dagger out of its sheath in my sleeve. I had decided to keep it in a hidden place, just in case. I also had a standard bow on my back and about ten arrows. I didn't need many for the game.

Chiron told us the rules. He sounded tired, like he wished that by now everyone knew the rules. Well, when you've been looking after a ton of teens who have played this game so many times and still didn't follow the rules, you go and tell Chiron what he was doing wrong.

Anyways, the game began and in five minutes time I was bored out of my mind. That's part of ADHD. On border patrol, you didn't do anything.

Pretty soon, I was braiding grass. Well, you can hardly blame me. My cabin mates were out in the thick of the fun. So were Nico, Avery, and Kole. I was glaring at the river when I heard it. There was a _whoosh _of a flag or something like that. It was almost silent. Without my sensitive ears, I would have never heard it.

Nico di Angelo unexpectedly zoomed out from the forest. He was running for all that life was worth. Soon enough, I saw why. He had ten campers on his tail. Nico was too quick for them, though. He jumped and flew over the border. I was in shock of how swift he was. Then it sunk in: our team had won.

The horn blew, signaling the end of the game. I could hear our team cheering. "Nice job, Nico," I told him.

A blond girl and a black haired guy came up to him and gave him high-fives. "Nico, that was sweet," the boy praised. It was Percy Jackson. People talked about him all the time, so I had learned what he looked like without ever meeting him. I had no clue Percy and Nico knew each other. The blond girl smiled at him and said something about how everything had gone according to plan.

Nico grinned. I could see the Ares cabin giving him looks that could kill. But it didn't matter, because everything was perfect. I looked over at Kole, and I found him smirking. Avery stood next to him, laughing at his cockiness.

I realized that this was the best day of my life. I had friends, whom I trusted, and I didn't have to deal with my mother or the rest of the world.

Of course, as with the life of any half-blood, it wasn't going to last.

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That night, I dreamed about many strange things. It was all a swirl of images, colors, sounds and feelings. Everything was unique, despite the mix. But then the dream swirled and it looked more like a nightmare. The colors swirled together and got dark and murky. The sounds muffled and then stopped completely. My dream self felt desolate and empty.

Then I was able to see where I was. Everything had been burned to the ground and was covered in dust, but it was New York City. The river was black and polluted. There was no chance of survival. Dust covered everything. The worst thing was that there was no light. At all. Everything was dark and dull.

Suddenly, a white dove flew into the debris. I felt a small spark of something, but I didn't know what it was. It wasn't bad, though. The dove sat in the waste for a while and looked through it, like it needed to find something. Abruptly it turned its head towards me and spoke.

_Seven half-bloods shall answer the call._

_To storm or fire, the world must fall._

_An oath to keep with a final breath._

_And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death._

It was a dream, but I still got a chill. Then the dove flew away, and I woke up. I realized I wasn't in my bed, I was in the center of the cabin complex. Six other campers were there as well. At first I was embarrassed to be seen in my pajamas, but then I realized there was a bigger problem. I knew what had happened.

We were given a prophecy. The seven of us that were sitting there on the pavement were the seven half-bloods in the prophecy. Oh my gods.

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**A/N- Not my favorite chapter. Oh well. Sorry if it was boring. Please review!**


	4. We Get Sent On A Stupid Quest

**A/N- Alright, I've been waiting for this. I've got people asking questions, but don't worry, I'll answer them in this chapter. Onto the story!**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, Rick Riordan owns all of this. There, happy?

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I was sitting there in the middle of the seven of us, wondering why this was happening, when someone else woke up. It was hard to tell how tall he was, considering all of us were collapsed in a heap (I felt too weak to get up), but he had brown hair and pale blue eyes. He was definitely a bit younger than me, I decided. He was also very burly.

He put his head in his hands and groaned. My head hurt as well, but the throbbing had faded into the background. Plus, I was trying to figure everything out. Like how I had gotten from my bed in my cabin to where I was now. I figured I had been sleepwalking. I mean, how _else_ would I have gotten there? Well, besides Avery playing a prank on me.

"Ow," the boy said. "My head hurts." Seeming to notice another person, he looked at me and said, "What are you staring at?"

I just shrugged, looking guilty. "Is that how you always introduce yourself? To answer your question, you're the only other one of us that's up." He seemed to notice the other people laying around us. I realized I hadn't really looked at them either yet. I grabbed the opportunity.

To my shock, I knew almost all the other five kids. Avery, Nico, Seth, and Kole were there. They were all conked out. Avery's arm was laying over Kole's face. Poor Kole. There was also another girl. She was probably my age with long brown hair and a nice tan. She also had a few freckles.

The boy that had woken up responded. "Well, my dad is Ares. But nah, I'm not always rude. I am most of the time, though. The name's Caleb Mort." Oh great, I was in a prophecy with a son of Ares. This was going to be a little strange, but since Ares didn't particularly hate Apollo and their cabin didn't hate mine or me specifically, I think I'll be alright.

Nico was waking up. He just winced and sat up, like he had been through pain much worse than the migraines we all had. He got straight to the point when he noticed the two of us. "Did you two have that dream as well?" When we nodded, he looked around quickly, as if doing a head count. He cursed. "This cannot be happening," he moaned.

I think I had an idea of what he was talking about. "Nico…was that a prophecy? About the seven of us?" I was fairly sure it was, but Nico always seemed to know everything, so I asked him. When he confirmed my suspicion, I got a feeling of dread. "We better wake the rest of them up,"

I remarked.

We did, getting a lot of moans and complaints. I woke up the one girl I hadn't met yet. When she opened them, I found her eyes were a pale green. She was really pretty.

The seven of us took a few minutes to compose ourselves. Then we walked over to the Big House. It took a while to get to there, but that's only because we were all like zombies. I bet my hair was a rat's nest. Which was, by the way, totally unfair, because Avery and the unknown girl's had perfect hair. And, plus, it's not like I had decided I wanted to get the freak prophecy.

When we finally got to the Big House, we had to wake up Chiron. We all called "Not me!" and Nico was the unlucky one.

A few minutes later, when they came back down, Chiron was wearing curlers in his tail. I smirked. He seemed to be updated on everything that had happened, which was good, because I don't think I would be able to tell someone about it, even though I remembered every detail.

Chiron looked grim as if things were getting worse, which, well, they were.

"Uh…" Avery moaned, "not…how…I wanted…to spend…my night." I agreed, but didn't say so aloud. I was to tired.

Chiron gave us some ambrosia and nectar, which I had learned was, like, god-food. It tasted really sweet. I instantly felt better and more lively. It was kind of like getting a sugar-rush. I don't know how the gods would feel about their food being compared to sugar, though, so don't tell them I said that.

Five minutes later, we were all sitting in the rec room. Avery had dragged me over to sit next to her and Nico. I had never been in here before, and it was pretty cool looking. There were ping-pong tables and we were sitting on bean-bag chairs. Okay, these were really comfy.

Then a whole bunch of other campers walked in. They were the counselors. There was no one in the Asclepius, Aeolus, Persephone, and Hebe cabins. Seth, Kole, Nico, and the girl I didn't know were all their cabins counselors. Some guy rubbed his eyes. "Can't a guy get some sleep around here?"

"I'm afraid you cannot tonight, child. We have urgent business to discuss. It seems as though these seven have heard a calling. This could have to do with the war."

"What war?" I asked.

"Kylie," Nico said, using my name for maybe the second time I had seen him. "The gods have little battles going on all the time. With Eris and Ares, no offense to either cabins by the way, of course they do. But now something worse than just a minor skirmish is going on. Most of the gods are at war with each other. There are probably four or five different sides that almost all of them are on. Athena is neutral, and that's it. A push in that direction, and the gods could bring about their own destruction. That's why there have been so many fires and floods lately."

"So what are we supposed to do?" the girl I didn't know asked.

"Well, Sadie, I think the seven of you will be going on a quest. Of course, I don't really know what you would really do, but you seven answered the call." Oh, that answers the question as to who she is.

"Chiron…" I said, "in the dream we had, everything was in ruins. It was all dark and polluted. That's because of the gods' war, right?" When he nodded, I continued. "So, don't we try to find something that could stop that from happening?"

Nico slowly grinned. It was strange, because the only form of a smile I had ever seen on his face was a smirk. He looked like a completely different person when he smiled. "You know what, Kylie, if your right, then our quest would be to find that object. Or whatever. A person, monster, magical artifact. It doesn't matter. Great thinking!" I think I blushed a bit. That was embarrassing.

"Now we just have to figure out what that could be," said Kole. I was surprised to hear him speak because he hadn't the whole time.

Annabeth Chase spoke. "If it was an item, it could maybe be the Sword of Peleus, the Sword of Death, or the Pelian Spear. Those are all magical artifacts."

Chiron looked as if he was thinking about something. "Yes, but only perhaps the Sword of Death might fit."

Seth spoke. "Could it be something new? I mean, new artifacts are being created all of the time. Hephaestus, the Cyclops, and sometimes my mother, Hecate, make weapons that are strange all of the time."

"I guess it could be a new magical artifact, Seth. Anything that could affect the gods would be a possible something. I mean, the war started with the Apple of Discord."

"That narrows it down, though," commented Avery. "I mean, there aren't a lot of things that could affect the gods. And that's not even necessarily what we should be worried about. What about the line in the prophecy: _An oath to keep with a final breath_? That doesn't sound very good."

"I guess if any of you have any oaths, you might want to mention them now," said Percy Jackson. None of us spoke.

"Well, I guess your quest is to find this magical artifact. Good luck!" Connor Stoll said. He obviously wanted out. I rolled my eyes.

"Thanks for the help," Nico said dryly. He seemed a little frustrated, but other than that, he was his normal self. Everyone else was tired looking. Does this guy, like, not get any sleep? I swear he looked used to it. He was the only one of us thinking straight. I mean, sure, the ambrosia helped, but it wasn't caffeine. Although, I think I'd actually drink some coffee now. I feel like it would be in my best interest to fall asleep right now.

"I'm afraid," Chiron said, "that there isn't really much we can do. It is up to the seven of you. You have to figure things out on your own. Do your best."

"What?!" Caleb said something for the first time. "That's it? All we get is a 'Sorry, can't help. Have fun!' That's so stupid!" Alright, this kid has anger management problems.

Chiron shrugged. Then he dismissed the counselors. They sprinted out of the rec room and back to their cabins. Lucky them. I slumped in my bean bag chair. If you think about it, that's a hard thing to do. How do you sit up straight in the first place?

"Go get some sleep, children," Chiron told us. "You'll need it. You'll be leaving tomorrow morning. Don't forget to pack."

That got my blood boiling. I mean, these people are sending us on some secret mission and not even telling us what it's for? Is it just me, or does that seem a little…stupid?

Nico got up and helped me. Avery also stood and moaned. "This is so ridiculous. I see some dove that gives me some strange poem and now I'm going on a quest to get some magical object and I don't even know what it is. This is sooooo unreasonable. I mean, they might as well put us up against a full-grown dragon without a weapon!"

Sadie smiled, but her heart obviously wasn't in it. "Well, we're all in this together, right?" she asked slowly. Her only response was a chorus of groans. What, you expected us to be bouncing around giggling. No way.

"Let's go," Kole said. "There's no way I'll be able to get up tomorrow if I don't go to sleep really soon."

"Doesn't matter if you can't get up," I said, "you're still coming."

"Just my luck," he muttered. "I guess Nike's children don't always win."

We all managed a small laugh at that. Five minutes later we split up and went to sleep. Garret, who had been at the meeting, was already asleep when I walked in the cabin. Lucky him; he was actually able to sleep. With news of my quest, I didn't think I was going to be able to fall asleep.

Fortunately, I did. I guess I wasn't as worried as I was tired.

But maybe I should have been.

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**A/N- Okay, sorry, this was a slow chapter. I needed to get some info across. I mean, you had to meet Sadie and Caleb! Please stick with me.**

**Sorry, solosinger1, I had a hard time adding some NicoXKylie 'cause I figured neither of them would be quick about starting a relationship. Plus, they still have a lot to learn about each other. Again, sorry.**

**Once more, I know this wasn't the most eventful chapter. I apologize for that. Really. Now, please review!**


	5. I Hear A Terrible Haiku

**A/N- Chapter 5 already! Wow, I'm good. Just kidding.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned PJO, Kylie would have been in it, so…no. Sorry.

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The next morning I packed quickly and headed up to Half-Blood Hill. I had figured we would meet there. Once everyone was there we were going to be driven by Argus, the camp's chief of security, to Manhattan or something. I didn't care. After all, it doesn't really matter where we're going. This is just, like, a mission to gather information. The first quest I get doesn't even make any sense! Life isn't fair.

When I got to the top of the hill, I noticed Nico already sitting there. He was dressed in his usual black.

"So…" I said, "um, hi." Wow, that was awkward. Didn't matter, though, 'cause he answered.

"Hey." I was quickly finding out that it was a bit strange talking to Nico by myself. The only other time I had really been one-on-one with him was when he was showing me the cabins. All the rest of the time we had been with Avery.

"You are not easy to talk to," I told him. He smirked and shrugged.

"Sorry." He didn't _sound_ sorry. Then his smirk faded. "I just never really wanted to go on a quest before. _Especially_ not one this idiotic."

He seemed to be particularly bitter about this. "Uh, if you don't mind me asking…why?"

He didn't answer right away. Just when he thought he was going to tell me to buzz of, instead he said, "My sister went on a quest three and a half years ago. There…there was a line in her prophecy…I didn't know it exactly…I think it was: _You shall lose one in the land without rain_…" he choked up. I didn't know if I should hug him or not. I mean, Nico is not the most huggable person. It's actually very strange to be within close proximity with him 'cause, you know, the whole he's so…independent? Sort of. It's more like he doesn't _look _like he needs a friend, but he does. It's hard to know how to act around him, though, 'cause once he's opened up you don't want to make him run away.

Okay, I think I'm analyzing this too much. Whoops. Back on track.

I said what sounded like it made the most sense. "I'm sorry…" Okay, not the most, well, sincere-sounding thing to say, but still. I _did_ mean it.

"At least you're telling the truth," Nico muttered. I gave him an odd look. Seeing it, Nico explained. "You see, all of Apollo's children are terrible liars. Sometimes, the senior campers get together to hang out and play, like, sleep-over games. It's stupid, but amusing. Garret's a terrible liar. Trust me, you'd want to lie if you were there too." He smirked as if remembering. I thought about it, and decided I wouldn't ask for him to expand on that. I was already a bit disturbed as it was.

I didn't know whether to laugh or not at his small joke. I mean, he was just telling me about his sister's death and now he was joking about lying. This kid is too confusing!

Thankfully, Sadie's arrival meant I didn't have to. She looked at us and then had a look of understanding on her face, like she knew _exactly_ what had happened.

"Hey…I never got a chance to introduce myself last night, considering it was kind of crazy. I figured I should, considering, you know, we're going on a quest? My name's Sadie Thyme and my mother is Demeter. I'm fourteen, by the way." I decided that Sadie seemed kind of cool, so I introduced myself and Nico. Sadie smiled at us.

Now that I was actually thinking straight and she was actually standing, I was able to see she was quite tall, maybe Caleb's height. She was willowy, I guess, and very peaceful looking. She obviously was a plant and animal lover, which actually made sense. I bet you a hundred bucks she's a vegetarian. She wasn't wearing her Camp T-shirt, like me. Instead, she wore jeans and a comfy-looking shirt with a world around words that read: _Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle: Preserve the World!_

Looking back on it, I wish I hadn't worn my Camp T-shirt 'cause it really clashed with my hair. What the heck, who cares?

Seth walked up the hill next. He was wearing his robes and had his staff with him. I think he wore robes because his mother was Hecate and, you know, magic people wear robes? It was definitely strange. Although, I'm thinking he has robes to hide something in them, but I don't want to know what. He didn't have any weapons besides that staff and maybe a dagger. I'm pretty sure we all would have a dagger hidden up our sleeve. Except for Caleb, 'cause he a son of Ares and why would he plan ahead?

"Hello," he said tiredly. It surprised me he said anything at all. I mean, Seth was the most introverted person I had ever met. I had pretty much only talked to him twice, and both times he had barely said anything. I think that of everyone going on this quest, I knew him the least, and I had barely even met Sadie. Seth was kind of mysterious, you know, in a good way. He was friends with Avery, so I didn't think he was that bad. I mean, I like everyone else Avery has introduced me to, and that's more than just Seth and Kole.

"Oh, hey," I said, finally responding.

A few minutes later, Caleb came up the hill. He was wearing camouflage pants and a plain white shirt. A little after he came, Sadie had to go. A satyr was calling to her at the bottom of the hill. I quickly found out that Sadie had a boyfriend. Oh, that was cute. She gave him a good-bye kiss. He gave her a necklace. You know, one of those ones that's gold and has a broken heart on it? It was so sweet. I think Caleb was kind of grossed out, though, because he made some type of sound that clearly stated disgust.

About ten minutes later, I was getting impatient. I'm not the most even-tempered person you will meet.

"Ugh," I said, "Avery always sleeps in. When I was in the Hermes cabin, she was always the last one up. And _where_ is Kole?"

The three boys shrugged. "I bet wherever they are, they're together," Nico muttered.

"I'm going to go look for them," I said.

"You'll regret it," Caleb told me.

I got up and walked down the hill. Then I had the weirdest compulsion to head to the forest. I sprinted there. When I got there, I was really confused. Why had I decided to go here?

I got my answer pretty soon. "Hello, Kylie," a twenty-something year-old man greeted me. He wore khakis and a plain T-shirt. He was smiling a lot, with the whitest teeth ever. NO way…they were shinier than mine! That was my clue.

"…Dad?" He smiled and nodded. The Lord Apollo, my father, was in front of me, I was meeting him for the first time ever, and I didn't even know what to say. That was kind of depressing. I mean, I had only recently learned I even _had_ a father because my mother, Danielle Wolf, didn't bother to keep me happy. I should have a ton of questions. But...I didn't.

Suddenly, my father's expression got darker.

"Kylie, before you go on your quest, I wanted to give you some advice. _Avoid the specters. _And seek out the griffins. Also I have a gift for you," he told me. Then he handed me a beret. Obviously seeing my confused expression, he said, "Open it and say _'wolf'_ ."

I didn't really get what that would do, but I followed his instructions. Wouldn't want to get anyone mad. Much to my surprise, the beret grew into a lyre. It was gold and silver and carved perfectly. I played a bit as an experiment. Oh my gods, the sound was beautiful.

"Thank you," I told him. He smiled.

"Just remember it when you're in a tight spot," he said.

I furrowed my brows, but he didn't explain.

"You know what, I think this calls for a haiku!"

Before I could do anything, he said:

"_Trees are overhead._

_I arrive in the clearing._

_Kylie gets a gift."_

Considering my father was a god, I decided not to point out what a terrible haiku that was. It nearly made my ears bleed, though.

"Don't forget your Ipod. And remember what I told you," Apollo said.

Before I could respond, Apollo was off in a swirl of mist. I clipped the beret/lyre in my hair. It would still open and close like a regular beret if I didn't say _'wolf'_. I wonder if he used my last name on purpose. It was possible, but then again, a wolf was his sacred animal. I guess it didn't matter.

I started heading over to the hill. I noticed everyone was there, so I started hurrying. "Kylie!" someone called, making me stop.

It was Garret. "Sorry, I just needed to give you something." I noticed he had my bow and a quiver of arrows. There were a ton of arrows. And my bow looked improved. Had I really forgotten it in my cabin? That was the worst possible thing I could have done. I was lucky my cabin mates were nice.

"We took your bow and made it stronger. We also got you some different types of arrows. There's a few rhyming arrows, sonic arrows, a couple of explosive arrows, and some stink arrows. Plus the regular ones." I looked up at him and hugged him.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He laughed and shoved me the direction of the hill. "Quest, right. Bye! Thank you!"

I made it to the hill. Chiron and Mr. D. looked kind of mad I wasn't there earlier. Why couldn't Mr. D. be off fighting in the war? This sucked.

"Alright," Mr. D. said with fake happiness, "good-luck and good-bye!"

"Do your best, children," Chiron told us. "Try searching for any magical artifacts or anything that could cause the downfall of Olympus. Don't worry about what happens here. Stick together, and do your best. …And do your best to avoid unbreakable promises. Those seem to be a bit dangerous right now. Alright, Argus will drive you as far as Manhattan. From there, follow your own leads. I hope to see you all again."

I looked at everyone else. They had all of their weapons with them. Sadie probably had some type of blade, but I guess she preferred using plants. Caleb was carrying a mace. I wonder what that will look like to mortals. Avery had her sword and her dagger and Kole carried two swords, each about one and a half feet long, strapped to his back. I guess this was it.

We piled into the camp van and got ready to move out. This was it.

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**A/N- Okay, now we're going to get into the real action! Thanks for reading.**

**Oh, I probably won't be able to update until the weekend, sorry about that…**

**Please review!**


	6. I Take A Crash Course On Driving

**A/N- Alright, this chapter is the…quest…thing. Uh, yeah, so, let's get to it then.**

**Oh, yeah, an alternate title is: WE ALMOST GET BLOWN UP  
**

**Disclaimer: All of this belongs to Rick Riordan.

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Argus drove the camp van as far as just out of Manhattan. Then he gave us an apologetic look and left us in the middle of nowhere. It was just a dusty road with some wheat fields. A few cars passed. We sat down on the side of the road. Oh, this was just great. Thanks for the help, Argus.

"So…" Avery said, "what do we do now?"

"Well," I mentioned, "my father visited camp and told me to avoid specters and look for the griffons. Whatever that means."

"That's good," said Nico, "it means we have something to go on. Why would we be looking for a griffon, though?"

"They usually guard treasure," Seth said. "Or a divine power, or something. They could be guarding the object we're looking for."

"How did you know that?" I asked, because everyone else seemed stumped. He seemed a little embarrassed.

"…In the titan war, I was on Kronos' side. We, uh, sometimes had griffons guard our important weapons and things like that…"

I looked at him. Now I thought that maybe that hadn't been the best question to ask. Hey, he didn't have to answer if he didn't want to! Not my fault! But he seemed alright, so, no harm done. Although, everyone else but Nico and Sadie was looking at him like they didn't know that, which, well, they probably didn't. I felt bad for putting him on the spot.

"Let's get going," I decided.

"Where to?" Caleb asked in a bored tone. I glared at him for a second. My eyes are perfect for glaring, because sometimes they can look like they're burning. Sweet, right?

"I want to go to Chicago," said Sadie. When we all looked at her strangely, she said, "Well, if you have any better ideas, go ahead."

"Well…it's just…why do you want to go to Chicago?" Kole asked. Sadie got a bit flustered, and I wondered why.

"Well…there's going to be a protest there for animal rights. I wanted to be there…"

"I want to go to Boston," Avery said.

"Why does it matter where we go if all you guys want to do is sightsee?" Caleb questioned. Well, it was a fair question. I mean, what would we find in Boston or Chicago? Some big skyscrapers? A few burnt down homes and lost puppies? (Not that puppies weren't cute, 'cause they were.) I don't know where I wanted to go, but it wasn't either of those place.

"We need to look for the griffons, so maybe we should look for where griffons are. They usually appear guarding entrances to buildings like libraries and stuff. But we also need to remember to avoid specters. Leave that to me, though, they're just ghosts, which is my forte." Nico seemed pretty confident…

"For now we should get on a bus or something, as long as it's going west," Kole said. You see, west was the direction, like, everything was. Because, of course, why would _anything_ be east. There were only a few boring states like Maine around there. Everything was west of Olympus. Or, everything that mattered.

"Yeah, we should," agreed Sadie. "But Seth, you might want to change out of your robes. They're too noticeable. Someone might think you, like, practice black magic or something. Well…you kind of do…"

"So will our weapons…"

"Fine…" Seth complained. "I hate changing out of my robes, though, they're an extra source of power, besides the magic that's inside my blood." Seth used magic to change his clothes. Now he was wearing jeans and his Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. I guess I'm not alone in my boring sense of fashion. Well, actually, Kole was wearing his T-shirt too. Avery was wearing some tanks in layers and capris. I didn't really get why pretty much everyone wore a different shirt. And you know what, I don't even know why I'm obsessing about it.

Ten minutes later we had gotten to a bus station. I guess we weren't in the middle of nowhere. After another ten minutes, we had boarded a bus. We were the only ones on it besides two weird-looking ladies. They were deformed, I guessed. Well, really hunched over at least. Deciding they were bad news, we figured we would sit as near as possible to the exit. We weren't going to pay, like, fifteen dollars and not get the full use out of it! No way!

The bus was still driving down that same dusty road when the ladies got up and made their way closer to us. Avery shot me a warning look. I didn't know if it was because I hadn't fought a monster before, but she seemed to think I should stay back. I would have gone forward to help, but then I realized I shouldn't anyways because I used range fighting. That might be why, but I didn't really like the way she seemed to think she had to remind me. I wasn't a baby…

It turns out, they were just checking something with the driver. When they passed by us, I think we all relaxed. Everyone released their hold on their weapons except for Nico and Kole. I think that we all _wanted_ to think they weren't monsters.

They started heading back to their seats before they came after us, one of them bellowing like crazy.

"Guys, watch out!" Avery shouted. "Those are the gorgons; they can turn you to stone! Don't look at them in the face!" Well, that made archery a bit harder. I couldn't exactly get a good shot if I couldn't aim. I might end up hitting one of my friends.

Caleb shut his eyes and went after the one that was bellowing. He yelled a battle cry of his own. The gorgon stepped aside. That idiot.

Everyone else seemed alright. Seth was actually doing pretty well, considered he couldn't look. He would send burst of energy that would damage the gorgons. They got really annoyed when he did that. I think the fact that they would clutch their faces in pain was an indicator that it really hurt. Go, Seth!

Sadie wasn't doing bad either, because she used plants to attack the gorgons. That would slow them down, but not do any permanent damage. Nico, Kole, and Avery just kind of dealt with the problem like they were used to it. Hey, we were demigods, so we were.

At this point you may be asking what I was doing. Let's just say, besides standing there like an idiot? Not much. But I did look over at the driver to see if he had noticed what was happening on his bus. I didn't like what I saw.

The driver had been turned to stone.

When I thought about it later, I figured that the gorgons had done that when they talked to him, but at that moment, I didn't care. I only worried about what would happen because the guy's foot was still pressing down on the accelerator. That's a one-way ticket to death.

I ran to the drivers seat. Now, I don't know if you have ever tried pushing a statue of a man who used to be two hundred and fifty pounds, but let me tell you, it is _hard_. My arms were burning by the time I finally managed to push him away. I barely even stopped to feel sorry for the guy. I had bigger problems to worry about. Number one was learning how to drive.

You see, I had never even been close to a steering wheel before. My mom was against teenage driving, or, more specifically, me driving. Have I ever mentioned I didn't like her? I figured the one the driver had been pressing on that kept us moving was the accelerator, and that the other one was the brake. Beyond that, I was stumped.

I barely made it out of there alive. I made some crazy swerves that knocked everyone around, and once slammed on the brakes so hard when I saw an old lady crossing the street. I swear it was like in those cartoons where the person stops an inch in front of the oblivious lady. I also ran about ten red lights.

All things considered, I think it went pretty well.

Finally, I registered that there wasn't much commotion in the bus. I managed to pull over the bus, albeit not very well. Who cares.

I noticed that all of my friends were still alive and breathing. They all had some cuts and bruises, but who cares?

"Well, that went well," I said sheepishly.

"No thanks to your amazing driving skills," commented Caleb. Thanks, you idiot.

"At least now we have a way of getting around," I said defensively.

"Not much longer," Nico cut in. He held up what looked like a bomb. Twenty seconds. Oh, shoot…

Now, you may not think that twenty seconds is enough time for seven kids to get out of a bus, and far enough away that you don't blow up, but you judge me when you're almost in an explosion. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins like crazy, and I didn't look back. I was the first one out, Nico was the last. We actually managed a bit of a line.

When the bomb finally went off, we were panting like dogs in a cornfield in the middle of nowhere. Now, I'm not an expert on running away or hitch-hiking across the country, but wasn't that a _bad_ thing? I'm pretty sure only my pack was alright. The others had put theirs down when they were fighting.

"Well…" I said, breaking the silence that had been bugging me, "at least we have a toothbrush." I held it up. The others groaned.

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An hour later we ate granola bars for lunch. We were just walking along the road, hoping to god that it brought us somewhere. The chances seemed very small now, but it wasn't too bad. Sadie was actually kind of fun to talk to. Her, Avery, and I spent most of the time talking to each other about various things. Sports, fashion (hey, we're girls), school, hobbies, our favorite things…and then they started talking about guys.

Now, forgive me, but I have never been the type of girl who obsesses about the cutest boys. I don't dress myself up for them, and I don't really flirt. But Avery, who is unlike me in almost every way, was a total girly-girl. Actually, I learned that Miss Holmes had a bit of a crush on Mister Parker. In other words, Avery liked Kole.

That first day was by far my favorite, despite the fact that we were walking almost the whole day because some gorgons had attacked the bus we were in. All in all, not a bad day. If you're alive, it's a good day for a half-blood. Especially those on quests where you don't even know what you're looking for.

We set up camp at around seven. We had finally come to some state park with lots of trees to hide us. Earlier Avery had robbed a gas station. She had almost been caught, but she got away, so who cares? Besides, when you gotta eat, you gotta eat.

"Sadie, I'm sorry, I didn't get a vegetarian meal for you. You'll just have to eat the meat," Avery said. I could tell she wasn't really sorry. You want to know how? She actually had a vegetarian meal sticking out of her bag.

"I refuse," Sadie said.

"Just eat it," Caleb moaned, getting tired of their argument. He didn't have much patience. Oh well, we weren't all perfect. Besides, it would be hypocritical of me to accuse him of it.

"I can't even believe you can all stand to eat animals! Poor, innocent animals! I refuse to eat meat. If you don't have anything that isn't meat, I won't eat it!" Sadie stomped her foot and acted like she wasn't going to talk to us. Eh, she'll come around.

"Sadie, you'll be weak if you don't eat it now. Come on, it's you or them!" Kole, Caleb, and Avery were all trying to convince her to eat meat. Seth, Nico, and I were all just watching with amused smiled on our faces.

Finally they gave up when Sadie accused them of being lowlife murderers. Everyone went off to do their own thing. I went off into the forest a bit to play my lyre. While I was playing, Nico snuck up on me. I didn't even realize he was there until he spoke.

"That sounds nice," he said. I blushed hard, and for a few moments I didn't speak for fear of embarrassing myself. I wasn't used to being complimented when I sang or played an instrument. It was a nice feeling to be appreciated.

"Yeah, well, it should, considering it was a gift from my father and all," I said. It was hard to come up with a witty comeback when there wasn't really much to comeback at. You try it and you'll see.

Nico smiled faintly. I was struck by the fact that when he wasn't so depressed looking, he was actually very attractive. His olive skin, dark hair and eyes…he really was handsome. I shook myself out of it, convincing myself I didn't like him like…that. I was just appreciating how he looked. The two were completely different.

"Yeah, well, I still liked it. You must have at least some skill to be able to play like that."

"Thanks," I said.

I had gotten the impression that Nico wasn't much of the admiring type. But he was actually kind of fun to talk to. Once, you know, you got past the fact that he didn't usually say much. And the other reasons, which I won't mention.

"So…" I said, "what are your parents like?" I asked. "I mean, if you ever met your father." His face grew dark and I worried that I had asked a bad question. It probably was, but he still answered.

"My mother died when I was young," he said bitterly. My eyes grew big. I had never really lost anyone close to me. "And I've met my father several times. We're not on the greatest terms, but things have gotten better." After that, he quickly changed the subject.

The rest of the time we talked, I didn't ask many personal questions. I still enjoyed speaking with him, though. He didn't drone on; he was pretty blunt. It was refreshing. Nico could actually become a good friend. I decided I liked the idea.

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**A/N- Eek, the end sucked. Sorry. But, hey, you're lucky to get anything out of me. I've been really busy. Yes, I'm complaining. That's your problem. Hey, you don't have to read this if you don't want to. I'm certainly not making you.**

**Oh, by the way, if you want to read a good book (now, this is mostly for girls), read Wings by Aprilynne Pike. It's an amazing fantasy book about faeries. It's a bit like Twilight, so if you liked that, you'll probably like this. Um, so yeah.  
**

**Yes, well, I hope you liked chapter 6. LONGEST CHAPTER YET! I was kind of fun to write. Please review!**


	7. We Hitch An Illegal Ride

**A/N- Chapter 7! Oh yeah! **

**Disclaimer: This all belongs to Rick Riordan. Well, except for my OCs. And the parts in the plot my sister made up.**

**Thank you, Zi! Without you, this fic would have crashed through the floor…**

**REMINDER: MOST BUILDINGS IN THIS STORY ARE FICTIONAL.

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Together Nico and I started walking back towards camp, talking. When we walked into the clearing where it was, we got a bit of a surprise. Caleb, Sadie, and Seth were all absent, but Avery and Kole were there. And you'll never guess what they were doing…kissing.

I was shocked I froze. Nico looked, like, really uncomfortable. When Kole and Avery finally realized we were there, watching, they both got sheepish looks on their faces. This was going to be good…

"We can explain!" Avery exclaimed quickly. Kole nodded quickly. Too quickly. A grin started to appear on my face. Avery continued. "You, uh, see, Kole was being an, um, idiot and he, uh, tripped over the log. It was, uh, a complete accident." I looked at the log she was pointing at. It was way too far away.

"You expect me to believe that?" I asked skeptically.

"Uh, yeah…it's the truth."

"Avery," I said, "I can see you crossing your fingers."

She immediately uncrossed them. Nico smirked. "What fingers?" she asked nervously. "I'm not crossing any fingers! Where would you get that idea?" I rolled my eyes.

Kole, seeming to get that we didn't believe a word of it, sighed. "Okay, fine, you caught us. We were kissing."

"Um, duh."

Nico and I grinned at their awkwardness. Caleb came through the trees at the other side of the clearing carrying firewood. He looked at us strangely, then shook his head, like it didn't matter to him. He muttered, "Idiots." Why, isn't he kind?

"Hey," I asked Caleb, "where are Seth and Sadie? Were they with you?" I had been wondering where the others were until I had come into the camp. Then I was too wrapped up in the hilarity of the situation with Kole and Avery. You know…now that I think about it, they are kind of cute together…

Caleb shrugged. "Sadie was looking for edible plants. But then she and Seth got in an argument. I'm sure they'll be here soon." He didn't sound like he cared. But, then again, Caleb doesn't really _care_ much about anything. I actually thought that fighting could be a very bad thing, considering we were on a quest. And on a quest like this, we needed to stick together. Well, that sounded corny, but we at least needed to be able to work together.

Now that I listened, I could actually hear Sadie and Seth loudly quarreling. I wondered what they were fighting about. I could guess, though. I bet Seth wasted something or littered. I smirked. Sadie would be watching him like a hawk.

They came into view, still angry with each other. "Okay, whoa, calm down," Nico said. I could understand why. Sadie was a bit red in the face and had been yelling at Seth. Of course, he wasn't going to take her insults. That meant he ended up fighting back. I can't believe they thought _they_ were the mature ones.

Sadie turned her anger towards Nico. "DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, NICO DI ANGELO! I AM COMPLETELY CALM! MEN! YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING, LAZY, PLANT-KILLERS! YOU'RE A DESTROYER OF NATURE!"

My eyes grew wide. That seemed a bit extreme, honestly. I mean, it wasn't Nico's fault Seth did something wrong.

"Um, Sadie," I said slowly, "you _really_ need to cool down. You're face is red." Oh, shoot, I probably shouldn't have said that last part. Oh well, I already did.

Sadie turned to face me. "Kylie?" She seemed confused. "I didn't realize you were here…Oh, uh, sorry…" She took some deep breaths. Everyone looked at me like they were wondering how on Earth I had managed to calm Sadie down. Well, folks, it wasn't easy.

About twenty minutes later, everything was back to normal. Or, at least, as normal as it could be for a few demigods. Sadie was still a kind of mad at Seth, and none of us were talking for fear of being yelled at. I blame Seth for getting her wound up in the first place. Then I tried breaking the silence.

"So…I was thinking…You know how the gorgons, like, died? How were they attacking us?"

Seth answered. "Kylie…Some monsters, gods, and ancient powers can fade, but they don't die. The gorgons did fade, but sometimes the more powerful monsters can come back. Like Kronos did, a couple years ago. They wouldn't on their own, though, something would have been calling them to rise up, or something like that. I don't want to know what it was."

"Maybe you do," said Nico slowly. "What if…what if that's what could destroy Olympus? This ancient power that raised up the gorgons could be something really important." Great, we were back to brainstorming.

"But I thought we were looking for griffins," Caleb said. That was a good point. I mean, Apollo, my father, had told us to look for them.

"Yeah, we still should. But maybe this whole thing is bigger than some magical object…"

"It could be," Avery supposed. "I mean, we've all been a bit single-minded about this quest only being to find some artifact. If it was actually a power, that makes things so different."

"Then," Kole said from where he was sitting next to Avery, "we have to figure that out. And after that we have to fight them. You guys need to think this through more. I mean, if this power was strong enough to bring the gorgons back, then we seriously have something to worry about. And what '_Doors of Death_' would they be guarding? Why in the name of the gods would they be guarding the doors to the Underworld?"

"Who knows?" Sadie replied. "First we need to worry about finding these griffins…and avoiding those ghosts."

"That's easy," Nico scoffed. "If we find building where griffins are guarding the entrance, we're gold."

"Well, we need to find that building," I decided. "But…how are we going to?"

Avery grinned. "Easy. We find a library with a computer. We'll head to the nearest town tomorrow."

"Well," Caleb said, "let's go to sleep."

"Good idea."

We were all out with a few minutes.

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The next morning we packed up our things and erased all evidence that we were there. Don't want any monsters tracking us, now, do we? Luckily, I had a map and we were able to find the state park where we were on it. The nearest town was about five miles from us. Deciding that was really lucky, we just walked. There was no point in wasting the twenty bucks we still had. But it was still a bit of a drag to have to walk.

We made it to the town in a little less than forty-five minutes. Hey, we were walking slowly. It was a small town. It's library was a one-story place. It only had one computer. Boy were we lucky. But it was dial-up, so that sucked. _And_ it was, like, impossible to find where the griffons were guarding a place. And Kole's dad worked with the Pentagon, with advanced programs and stuff like that. Kole said he was an expert on computers, but even he couldn't find anything.

Finally Avery told him to click on something. It was an article about the statues of griffons in front of a library in Ohio being destroyed and how they would be rebuilt.

"That's where we're going," said Nico. "Now we need to get there. What city is it in?"

"Um…Columbus? I think that's what it says…" Sadie looked a little pale as she said that. I don't think she was real excited about going to Ohio. I wonder why…

"Well, we could stow away on a plane," said Seth, a bit jokingly. Wow, Seth was joking.

Nico shook his head violently. "Not if you want to survive. Zeus doesn't let me in the air. Ever. I would be blasted out of it. Never in my life have I ever been on a plane. Not in my entire life, and that's lasted a long time." We gave him weird looks. He shrugged them off.

"Well, maybe we could get on a train," I said. "I mean, we wouldn't be able to pay for all of us, maybe not even one of us, but we could get straight into the city, right?"

"I guess."

After that was decided, we looked up the nearest train station. It was actually really close, which was really lucky, again. We hitched a ride with some truckers. Actually, they didn't know we were on their truck, Avery had hot-wired it, and taken it when they were in a store, but, same thing. We left it in a tow zone and hopped out of it next to the train station. Then, Avery (how does she know all of this?) would have snuck us in, but Nico had a better idea.

"I'll manipulate the Mist. I should've thought of that sooner." Seth grinned.

"I can put a spell on him to make them think that we should be on here the entire ride."

"Do it," Caleb encouraged them.

"Alright," Nico whispered. I saw that he whispered because the train person was coming. When he was there, Nico did something really weird. When we were going to be busted, he snapped and said something like, "We're passengers on this train. Let us through."

The strangest thing was, though, that he let us through. Kole and Caleb high-fived. It was kind of funny, actually, to see them do that. Then we boarded the train. It would take us to almost the edge of Pennsylvania. It was only about three and a half hours 'til we got there. We wasted most of the time talking and Avery, Sadie, and I played 'Would You Rather?'

"Let's see..." I said, "Avery, would you rather go to jail or never to another prank or commit another crime again?"

"That's easy," she scoffed. "I would rather go to jail, duh." She smiled at me.

The game continued like that, and it didn't seem like a long time until we were in Pennsylvania. From there, we boarded the second train, and Nico and Seth had to do their thing again. This train ride only lasted about two and a half hours. It wasn't long until we were in Ohio, but I think we had gotten the directions wrong, 'cause we were in, like, the middle of nowhere. From what I had seen, Columbus was a pretty big city.

"Well…" Seth said, "this sucks."

"Yeah, I know," I replied. "How are we going to get to Columbus from…here? I don't think it's a good idea to get back on the train now."

"I have an idea about how we could get there," Sadie said, swallowing. She seemed nervous, just like she did when we were at the library in New Jersey. That was weird.

"Well," Caleb said impatiently, "what is it?"

Sadie looked sick. "My dad lives in Ohio. I could contact him using an Iris Message. I'm sure he'll take us to Columbus. Problem solved." I wondered if she had problems with her father. I mean, if they were anything like the ones I had, then we were screwed. But Sadie seemed pretty positive that he would come for us, which was good. I guess things between them were a bit tense. I hoped they would work things out.

Kole got a golden drachma from Avery and handed to Sadie. Seth used magic to make some mist. I think Sadie said a quick prayer before she threw the coin down, saying, "Oh goddess, accept my offering."

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**A/N- Okay, well, that's my mini cliff-hanger. Sorry I couldn't update last night. I'll try to update quicker in the future.**

**Oh, um, I'm not sure if I got those words right at the end. Sorry…**

**Well, please review!**


	8. We Talk To Statues

**A/N- Chapter 8! Oh my gosh, we're there already? Wow…this is going by quickly.**

**Disclaimer: I would like to state that Rick Riordan owns all of this. Thank you.

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The image in the mist shimmered. I thought that it was really cool, 'cause I'd never seen an Iris Message before, but the others didn't seem to find it especially spectacular. I was wondering if we should go away, and give Sadie some privacy, but there wasn't really anywhere to go. And no one else was leaving, just waiting to see if we were going to be able to get a ride. Unfortunately, Sadie got eve more nervous because of that.

An image of a man appeared. He was really tall, like, maybe 6'3 or 6'4, and very tan, lean, and strong-looking. He looked like a farmer, 'cause he was wearing a plaid shirt and overalls. He also had a straw hat. His eyes were the same color as Sadie's, a spring green. He also had sandy hair and smile lines. I didn't see why things between Sadie and him would be so bad. He seemed really nice.

"Um…Dad?" Sadie asked tentatively. The man turned around. He looked really surprised to see Sadie, but not the message. I guess he knew about the whole half-blood thing. Well, that's a good thing, you know, 'cause it would seem kind of suspicious if Sadie was just like, 'Hey Dad, what's up? Yeah, can you drive my friends who you've never met and I to Columbus for reasons I can't tell you?' Yeah, that sure would fly.

"Sadie?" Her father didn't really seem to believe that she was there. Yeah, they hadn't talked for a while.

"Uh, hi," she said with a stressed smile. The rest of us were just standing around awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Well, but wait. It wasn't working out too well for Caleb.

"How are you?" her father asked, as if worried she would cut off the connection. She better not!

"I'm fine, Dad," Sadie said quickly. Well, I don't know about fine… "But that's not what I need to talk to you about. Um, well, you see, some friends and I got sent on a quest, and we need to get to Columbus. I was wondering if you could take us in the truck. We're not far away, maybe two miles west, you know, close to those fields by, um, what was that person's name? Well, the closest train station." Sadie was rambling. It was _really_ obvious she was anxious.

"Of course I'll take you," he said, sounding concerned. "We can catch up then." Sadie didn't look happy at that statement, but she looked as if she had expected it.

"Alright then…I'll see you."

"I love you, honey," he said sincerely. Sadie just swallowed and nodded. I kind of thought she was acting stupid. I mean, I sometimes act like I hate my mother, but I would do anything to have her say she loved me. I don't think she ever has. Not once.

Sadie cut the connection. She closed her eyes as if saying another prayer. "Sadie…" Avery asked slowly, "are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

Seth looked depressed and changed back to his regular clothes. I hadn't noticed before, but when he wore normal clothes, his staff sort of flickered between, well, the staff and a pencil. I assumed that was either the magic of the staff or the Mist. It was a very powerful magical object, so I guess it could even confuse me, despite the fact that I was a half-blood. Huh.

"I wish Justin was here," Sadie complained quietly, fiddling with her necklace.

"Who's Justin?" I asked. She seemed surprised I had heard her.

"Oh…uh, he's just my boyfriend, back at camp. I miss him."

"The satyr?" Kole asked dubiously.

"Hey!" Sadie said defensively. "He's a very good boyfriend!"

"What's this I hear about a boyfriend?" I spun around. I found that Mr. Thyme had snuck up on us without us realizing it. He sure was graceful and sneaky for a tall guy.

Sadie blushed deep red. I laughed, but managed to pull it off as a strange cough thing. Nico looked at me weirdly. I turned a little pink myself.

"Um, it's nothing. Well, nothing too important…"

"Alright. Sadie, you can sit in the front. I'm afraid all of your friends will have to sit in the back though."

"That's fine," Avery said quickly, flashing her pearly whites. Mr. Thyme looked like he had decided she was a really nice girl. Um, suck up.

The talking stopped, and everyone boarded the truck. Once the car got going, we didn't really talk. Sadie and her father were, but we couldn't hear them over the roar of the engine. I could tell they were working things out, though, because Sadie had a very serious look on her face. Usually she looked peaceful or furious. She kind of scared me when she looked serious. I don't really know why, but she looked…intense.

It was maybe an hour before Sadie's father stopped. I guess the farms and the cities aren't far apart in Ohio.

He had parked in the parking lot in front of the library. It was small, but still there. Once we had all piled out, Sadie gave her father a little hug. "Bye!"

"Be careful," he warned. "Do you want me to wait for you, or should I go?"

"It's probably best if you leave now," said Sadie. "I don't know how long it will take us, and there could be some type of explosion or something. I'd feeling better knowing you were at the farm."

He nodded and left us in front of the stairway. It was a pretty big library for a small city. Well, it wasn't, like, small, but it wasn't New York.

The griffins were by the stairway. The library looked a bit like the important one back home. I don't remember what it's called, 'cause I don't ever read, but it was big and white. The difference was that instead of there being lions, there were griffins.

"So…" Caleb said, "what do we do now?" Good question.

"We could try to talk to the griffins," Nico suggested.

"Yeah, let's talk to a statue," I said sarcastically. Nico sighed.

"You don't get it. All statues are sacred to a certain god. If we can figure out who, we could pray to them and they _might_ come to life. Well, actually, they are always alive and guarding whatever, but they don't usually respond unless a threat is made. And we don't want to threaten them, 'cause they are really dangerous."

"Alright…" said Seth, "but how do we figure out what god they're sacred to?"

"Oh, easy," Avery replied. "It's written here, on the back." I looked at where she was pointing. I don't know how she saw it, 'cause it was pretty small, but in minuscule writing it read: _terAims._

Wait, no, that was wrong. My dyslexia meant I was a terrible reader, obviously, and that was especially small writing, even worse. It must have said _Artemis._

"Oh, well, that's great," said Kole. "But, unfortunately, Artemis would never answer our prayers."

"She should…" Nico muttered. I gave him a strange look. He saw it. "My sister, you know, the one I told you about? Yeah, well, she was a Hunter of Artemis. She died on a quest to save her. Artemis, well, owes me, in a way. Unless my father already took up that favor, but he doesn't like Artemis, so he avoids her at all costs…"

He closed his eyes and prayed. Nothing happened.

"Oh, great."

"Wait a sec, Caleb," I muttered. Then, after a sudden wind and the smell of animals, the griffins stretched. I don't know if you've ever seen a statue stretch, but it's really weird. They yawned.

"Alright," one of them said, "if you're planning on stealing what we guard, go away, 'cause we don't feel like fighting you." Great, now they're talking.

"Um…well, we kind of need it…" said Nico awkwardly.

"Too bad, we guard it for a reason." The griffins weren't particularly enthusiastic guards. They were slouching now that they were, well, awake. I wonder what it looked like to the mortals. I bet they thought we were talking to statues. That _would_ be strange.

"But," Avery protested, "we need it to save the world! Everything will be destroyed otherwise! Including you!"

"Hey, Larry, I think they're serious," said the one that hadn't spoken yet. The one that had been talking to us, Larry, sighed.

"I guess that means we'll have to fight you. On the count of three, 'kay?"

"What the heck!" Kole said, drawing his swords. He wielded them well. I ran a bit off, 'cause it was a bit easier to shoot arrows from long distances.

"-Three." They attacked with slashing talons and biting beaks. I aimed and took a shot. It was tough, 'cause the target was moving, but my dad's Apollo, and if I couldn't shoot a moving target, I'd be the weirdest phenomenon on the planet. In other words, I got 'im pretty good. His wing was injured and he had trouble staying in the air. Caleb took him out with his mace. Yeah!

The others were handling the other one. Sadie couldn't really do much, though, because it was difficult to grow plants as high as he was flying. Well, impossible for anyone but Demeter. Mostly it was Seth and Avery doing the damage. Did you know Avery has throwing knives? But she's not good at archery. With that they managed to bring it lower, but it didn't give up until Nico battled it with his sword and stabbed it. It disintegrated.

We swiped the sweat off of our foreheads. "Hey," Sadie said, "now that we killed them, how are we going to find the passage that they guarded?"

"You know what…that's a good question."

"Well," Nico reasoned, taking a few deep breaths, "it should be nearby…"

"What if we can't open it?" asked Caleb.

"Let's worry about finding it first," Avery said.

We inspected the area for a bit. There wasn't much except for a few bushes and the stairs. The people passing by looked at us strangely. "Hey folks, don't look here," I said. "We're all fine, thanks for asking."

"Hey, guys," Nico said, "I sense something."

"You…sense something?" Kole said. "No offense, dude, but that's weird. I mean, you're acting like you have ESP or something…"

Nico groaned. "I didn't mean exactly that. There's something underground here. I can feel it. See that fissure, there? It's the entrance to where we need to go."

"You know what?" Caleb said. "That would be really helpful information if we could actually _open _it." The others muttered that they agreed.

Suddenly, I got this weird compulsion. You know, when you just _have_ to do something? Yeah, that's what I felt. I barely even thought about it before I did it; it's like my hands were being forced to move and I was barely aware. It was really freaky.

By now you're probably wondering what it was I did that was creepy. Well, I unclipped my beret and whispered '_wolf_''. It grew into a lyre, and I started playing the sweet music. The melody was kind of eerie, but I liked it.

Alright, it's not that bizarre.

But it did work. With a big 'CRACK' it opened up to reveal a staircase.

"So…who wants to go first?"

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**A/N- The suspense it building up…**

**Okay, actually, it's not too crazy, but next chapter will be. That's a promise. Actually, it might take me a while to update because it's going to be so action-packed. I'll make it worth it!**

**Please review!**


	9. We Lose Something Important

**A/N- Chapter 9! Whoot! Alright, let's get this show on the road….**

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns, well, all of this. Except for the OCs, which are a big part of this story…

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The staircase was really creepy. It was like something from a horror movie. It was covered with cobwebs (that I could barely see) and it was almost completely dark. Have I ever mentioned I'm terrified of complete dark? I am. I never thought I'd ever go underground, where it can be pitch black. I had this weird feeling like someone…or something…was creeping up on me.

"Ah!" I spun around, losing my balance. Nico caught me. Oh, so he was the one sneaking around. Sure, I bet _he's_ right at home. There were skeletons _decorating_ it, and he's a son of Hades. Hades is, like, the god of dead people. Skeletons were dead people, right?

"Whoa, calm down, Kylie," Nico whispered, making sure I was alright before letting go of me. "Just be more careful next time."

The others were a bit behind us. I could tell because they were talking to each other. I whispered to Nico, "Well, it's a bit difficult to be careful 'cause I can barely see where I'm going. You try."

"I have night-vision, in a way. It's a child of Hades thing."

"Oh." Awkward…

Nico studied me for a moment. I could only tell 'cause he was right next to me. "Are you…are you afraid of the dark?" I blushed a deep red. Oh my gods…

"NO!" I whisper-yelled. Nico raised his eyebrows in a smart-ass way that only a child of Hades could. I pouted. "Alright, fine, yes."

"It…helps if you're close to someone else. Well, um, that's what they say in movies, where the actress pretends to be afraid. But…you're not pretending. I bet it's a child of Apollo thing. I swear, I'm going to have fun torturing Garret when we get back." I gave him a look.

"Gee, that really helped. Thanks Nico." I didn't tell him the truth: that it really did.

Nico took my hand in his. Great, now I was getting nervous again. But he didn't let go, and it wasn't, like, 'cause he liked me in…that way. He was just a good friend.

The others caught up to us, but no one said anything. I think we were all too apprehensive. This was a big thing.

I stepped forward, and instantly fell. "Ahhh!!!" The step had been a trick, or and illusion. I blame Seth for not telling me. Nico was still holding on, and I was wondering how he hadn't been pulled along with me, 'cause that would have been a big jolt, but he had managed to keep hold of my hand and not fall with me.

He brought his other hand down to take hold of my other hand. I reached it up to him. Looking below, I realized there was nothing but a black abyss. I looked into Nico's eyes. "Don't you _dare_ let me go." But my voice quivered a bit, so it wasn't very fierce.

He tried pulling me up, but couldn't because he was slipping himself. The others had to get Nico first. Alright, what's with all of this waiting, my arms are getting sore!?

With everyone's help, they managed to pull me up. I gasped. "That was all me," Caleb gloated.

"Thanks," I panted sarcastically. If you can pant sarcastically… Well, anyways, Caleb didn't notice the sarcasm, but then I realized it was probably because I wasn't being completely sarcastic. I actually meant what I said. I mean, they had just saved my life.

"Those three steps there are illusions," Seth said.

Avery studied it. "It should be an easy jump."

Sadie looked at it and agreed. "If you guys want, I could grow some vines in the empty space in case someone doesn't make it."

"That's a good idea, Sadie," said Kole. Well, none of us wanted to plunge to our deaths.

Nico didn't say anything. I think he was still too tired to bother saying anything. He noticed me looking at him, and his eyes met mine. For once, I think I could see what he was feeling. Exhaustion, relief, and…worry? About me?

Caleb made his way across first. He didn't have any problems. Neither did Seth, Sadie, or Kole. Avery almost fell after she jumped, 'cause her foot slipped, but Kole caught her. She gave him a kiss.

Once Nico and I leaped across without problems (I was amazing in track and field, especially on long-jump), we kept on going. The stairway went on for a long time, before we finally came to the end. There was a fork in the path, though, and Kole, who was leading the group, stopped abruptly.

"Go right," Seth said. We looked at him strangely. "Well, my mother's the goddess of crossroads, and I think we should go right. So let's…go right."

"You're so weird," Caleb said, shoving his way up to the front to go right. I didn't disagree.

That passage continued for a while. Nico had taken hold of my hand again, but this time, it wasn't necessary. The halls were lit with dim green light. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible.

We heard a slithering sound. It was something big, and we drew our weapons. Kole and Avery were back-to-back, and it was actually cute, despite the fact that they looked as if we would be fighting for our lives. With a whirl, Seth's robes appeared again. I guess he had never put them on again after he changed. Sadie drew her dagger, and I made sure mine were where I put them. It's all good.

A big, ugly, green serpent made its way through the hall. Despite its size, it fit alright, because it was a huge passage. Probably so this big guy could get around.

I gulped. I hated snakes. My two greatest fears in one day showing up. Great… Anyways, the serpent-thing hissed again, and I knocked an arrow, getting prepared to shoot.

"It's Python!" shouted Avery. "Apollo killed it and no one's seen again in centuries. Just our luck!"

I let a few arrows loose, but they didn't do much. It just made Python really made, and he, like, roared…That's _so_ weird. Who's ever heard of a snake roaring?

Well, it did. I wondered how on earth my father had been able to kill this beast. Avery threw her knives at it, and Seth actually got some really cool magic shots in with his staff, but it only seemed to aggravate it. This sucked!

Sadie was growing plants as a barrier between us and it. You would think that would make it difficult to attack him with swords, but they just opened up when Kole, Avery, Caleb, and Nico ran through. That was sweet.

I just aimed my arrows through breaks in the plants. Sadie left them for me. I was trying to distract Python well the others attack it, and so far it was working. I got an amazing shot in one of its eyes, and it roared again. Creep.

Yeah, so, it was really kind of scary. Let's just say, I was really glad I was over here, and not right next to the monster like Caleb. He took his mace and smashed it down on Python's body. Ouch! That had to hurt.

Unfortunately, it didn't really look as if it did. Oh well. "Try to get the eyes!" Kole shouted. That's exactly what Nico, Avery, and Caleb did after that. It was working pretty well, and with Seth's magic holding him down, Kole was able to stab it through the center of its eye. Obviously that was its weakness, 'cause he disintegrated after one last roar.

"Oh my gods…" Avery seemed, like, really freaked. "That was the scariest monster I have ever fought. I mean, like, I've never fought something that _big_."

Kole smiled at her reassuringly, and, after smiling at her, gave her a sweet kiss. "Get a room!" Caleb shouted, sick of their lovey-dovey behavior. We all grinned. It was good to have some time to rest for a moment after a battle.

Nico, of course, was the first to be serious again. "Let's keep on going," he said. Avery pouted.

"You're killing the spirit, Nico. Couldn't you just lighten up?"

"No." I grinned at his single-syllable response.

We had sort of been in a chamber earlier, but now we were heading into a smaller, earthy tunnel. Great, an enclosed space, lots of dirt, no light, and now Nico wasn't holding my hand (don't tell him I said that). Just my idea of fun.

Sadie was having the time of her life. She was making all sorts of flowers and plants bloom on the walls and on the ground. "Anybody hungry?" she asked. She fed us some fruit and vegetables she had grown in a minute. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until then. I wondered what time it was. Pretty late, I'd say. This could be dinner. Or maybe it was later.

It wasn't for another twelve minutes that we got moving again. How did I know? Well, that's what Seth said, and he could check all types of things with magic, so I believed him. What's not to believe? Seth's a pretty honest guy.

We came to an exit from the passage. It was dark at first, but when we entered, it lit up. Then I realized it hadn't lit up because of us, but because about eighty snake-women-things were carrying torches. Oh shoot. From what I could tell from the other's expressions, these guys meant bad news.

They hadn't seen us yet, but I knew we didn't have a chance for escape. It was only a matter of seconds. I pulled out my bow and shot an explosive arrow at the monsters. A couple turned into dust. Great, we're getting closer to zero! Only about seventy-eight more to go!

The others had been thinking like me, and also drew their weapons. I wished that the edge of the lake was a bit closer to the wall. Not understanding? Okay, here's the thing.

When we had walked into the place and the torches had lit up, the first thing I noticed wasn't the monsters, but the underground lake. It was black and eerie and I wouldn't go in it if my life depended on it, so I was thinking the same applied to the snake-women. There was also a light shining into the middle of the lake, and a tiny island. I had a feeling something was there. Something important.

"Don't step in the lake!" Nico warned. "It's one of the lakes that comes up from the Underworld! Technically it's just a illusion, but it will still either kill you or do something else really bad!"

Alrighty, then, I won't step in there.

Anyways, the snake-women had seen us, obviously, and now we were going to attack. I had shot a couple of arrows beforehand. I was hesitant to use my explosive ones, though, 'cause I had a feeling I'd need them another time.

We started out pretty well. I mean, we had just eaten, so we weren't, like, dog-tired. Although we were kind of tired. Well, duh, we fought Python earlier. I wondered if these 'ladies' would be harder to beat.

Avery threw a couple of well-aimed knives and the monsters disintegrated. Whenever Nico's sword found it's way through the ugly ladies' armor, another one was gone. Kole was a force to be reckoned with, with his two swords. Caleb was smashing monsters left and right. It was pretty cool.

Seth, Sadie, and I again weren't originally in the thick of it, but then snake-women surrounded us. Wow, Seth could use his staff in some pretty creative ways. Sadie was holding up just fine, using plants to wrap them up and then stabbing them with her dagger.

And me? I managed a quick look around to see if there was a ledge I could shoot from close by. Score! I stabbed another monster with my dagger, and then ran as quickly as I could to the ridge and started climbing. I figured the worst was over after I got past the area where the monsters could still reach me. Once I managed to make it up with, thankfully, no injuries, I took aim and shot a particularly nasty-looking monster that was creeping up behind Caleb. It wailed as it died.

I kept on killing off the bad ones, and they seemed to realize I was a problem.

I wasn't too worried about them getting me until one found a path up. I tried shooting it, but it was kind of below the ledge, so the arrow missed. That couldn't be good.

The monster made its way to the place where I was. I put away my bow really quickly and took out a couple daggers. This bad boy…er, girl…was going down.

We fought for a while, but neither of us gained the upper hand. Suddenly it got a good shot in. When my guard was weak, she stabbed me in the side. As I registered the pain, she kicked me where she had stabbed me and sent me flying over the edge.

"Kylie!" I heard someone scream. I barely head them myself because I was screaming so loudly.

"Ahhh!" It wasn't a very long drop. _Please don't let me die_, I prayed. When I was about to become a spot of blood on the rock, someone wrapped their arms around me and caught me. It to me a moment to realize I wasn't dead. When I looked up, I realized my savior was…Nico? Huh.

"Thanks," I said.

"You owe me," Nico muttered, looking uncomfortable as he said it.

I stayed with Nico during the rest of the battle. Remember how I had put my bow on my back before I fell? Yeah, well, I still had it, so I was still game.

I noticed that we were getting tired. Like, everyone. Our blocking was lazier, and we weren't as forceful. And then Avery slipped.

She had a monster coming after her, and there was no way she'd make it. It was charging at her too quickly.

"No!" Kole yelled. He ran at the monster, and just as it was about to stab Avery, Kole took the blow, and stabbed the monster as well. The snake-women hissed, but I barely remembered, 'cause the hit Kole had taken was fatal. He wouldn't die right away, but he would die.

"Kole!" Avery shouted, crying. "Kole, get up!"

I looked at Nico with tears in my eyes. He killed another monster, and I realized only a few were left. Seth took care of them.

We all ran to Kole. Nico and Avery seemed in the most pain. "Avery…" Nico said, "he's not getting up. He's dying. He's not dead, but he will be…"

Kole whispered something, and I could barely hear him. "Use my wings…Avery…I, I'm sorry…"

And then he went completely lifeless. Avery's scream of anguish was so loud I almost clapped my hands over my ears. I was crying hard too.

And then I really realized what was going on.

Kole had died. And he had died keeping an oath. To protect Avery.

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**A/N- …Don't flame! I'm sorry if anyone likes Kole! Don't kill me! Actually, I like Kole too. He's fun and nice. And Avery and him are adorable together.**

**Please don't flame, just review!**


	10. I Learn To Fly

**A/N- Chapter 10…! Yay… I'm sure most of you are kind of sad about Kole, and not particularly happy with me…**

**Disclaimer: Anyways, Rick Riordan owns the PJO series. Yeah, I know, I'm so much cooler. –sees pitchforks- On second thought, maybe he is a bit cooler…

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_Kole had died. And he had died keeping an oath. To protect Avery._

When Kole's death sunk in, I was crying almost as hard as Avery. Kole was our friend. I didn't want to believe he was dead. Sadie was crying hard too. The guys seemed more in shock. Or maybe they were trying to act manly. Idiots. Someone, _their friend_, just died and their worried about how cool they seem.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up through my tears and saw Nico. He gave me a small smile. It was comforting, in a way. I felt bad for Avery. The person who always comforted her was Kole, and he was the one who was lying on the stone, dead. I sobbed some more at the thought. It wasn't fair.

Nico sounded choked up, but managed to say, "We should go. And use his wings. He said we could."

I looked at him. "Give us time," I muttered sorrowfully.

Seth and Caleb looked a bit afraid of us in our emotional state. I don't blame them.

"Would you all just…be quiet…" Avery whispered sadly. We were. Avery was going to be the person who was going to be controlling this situation. We all bowed our heads. I noticed that Kole's body wasn't there anymore. It looked like a pile of feathers instead, but then I realized they were wings. That must be what he meant by "use my wings".

Seth broke the silence. "Nico's right. We can't stay here too long. Someone should use the wings."

Caleb beat me to asking. "For what?"

"For flying across the lake," Sadie managed. I noticed she was still crying silently. I think that I was getting a bit better. Tears leaked out of my eyes less often. I can't say the same for Avery, though. She was distraught. It was understandable. Her boyfriend just died. Our friend just died. A few more tears came out. Nico rubbed my shoulder. I hadn't realized his hand was still there.

"They…work?" I asked, swallowing. They nodded. "Why can't we just…use a boat?"

"It's acid. Bad idea," said Nico. "The wings are the only way."

"Who's going to use them?" Sadie asked quietly.

"Not me," the guys chorused. It didn't make me laugh. Besides, they had valid reasons. Nico wasn't allowed in the air. Caleb was probably to big too even get the wings on. Seth was…well, I don't know his problem, but I'm sure there was one.

Avery just shook her head at us. That was obvious. Now it was between Sadie and me. "I don't think I'll be able to," she said. "I'm still kind of in shock. I'll mess up."

Something dawned on me. Now, I'm not particularly quick, but it seemed a little noticeable. If the other five (I almost said six) didn't want to do it, that mean I was flying across the acid lake, going to the island, probably fighting some nasty monsters, and coming back. What? I didn't sign up for this! Then I realized I had, when I agreed to go on this quest.

"The wings are good for two flights," Nico said. "Why two? I have no clue. It's best you do it. If there are enemies, you can shoot at them from the air. Be careful."

Okay…that was a bit…strange? I don't know. Nico warning me to be careful seemed a little silly. Nico wasn't really the…caring type. He was a cool friend, yeah, but he figured you could work things out on his own.

"Don't drop the artifact," warned Caleb. How reassuring. At least I knew he cared.

"I won't," I said, glaring. Nico picked up the wings, examined them, and started strapping them onto my back. When they were completely on, I felt a weird tingling.

"Whoa," said Nico. "Kylie, the wings just melted into your back. That's wicked. It will probably make them work a bit better…"

I looked over my shoulder. He was right. "I just hope they work," I said.

"They will," said Avery bitterly. She sounded really sour. Well…I was using her dead boyfriend's wings… The thought made me instantly lose any happiness I had found.

"Good luck," said Sadie. At least she seemed sincere.

I took off. The wings felt like they were made for me. I guess that's what happens when they get grafted onto your back.

I actually really enjoying flying. Surprisingly, my bow and quiver didn't bother my wings. I was able to swoop and spin around. I looped around in circles a couple of times, but then I got worried about them wearing out before I got to the island. Or back from the island.

When I finally did reach it, I examined it. It was tiny. Maybe ten feet across. I don't really pay attention in school, so that might not be right. Whatever. It was just really small. There wasn't anything on it. Well, except for this treasure chest thing. I figured that's what I was looking for, so I swooped down. When I was within twenty feet of landing, these…birds…flew out from the sand. No kidding. They literally flew out from the sand.

Then they attacked me. There were only three or four, and I was able to kill them easily with my dagger. That's all that was guarding this great magical artifact? Puh-lease. That was too easy.

It was then I realized that this whole cavern was guarding the artifact. The lake, the birds, and probably the snake-women. And maybe even the hallways before that. Hey, remember the trick step? I've almost died three times already. And we were lucky. We didn't get lost because of Seth. I guess it was pretty stupid of me not to realize how dangerous this place was before. Well, my bad. Sorry. We just seemed to have the means to do everything so easily. I guess that was pretty cool.

I landed on the island. This was getting creepy. Well, not that it wasn't already, but this was way scarier. I felt like this was a life-or-death situation, and maybe it was. But then again, maybe it wasn't. Maybe all I had to do was open a treasure chest and grab some cool weapon. Then we could go back to camp, right?

It seemed impossibly easy, but I opened the treasure chest. When I did, I wasn't particularly happy. In fact, my emotions clouded over and I wasn't really sure what I was feeling, or doing. My mind clouded over, and I dropped the top of the box and fell to the floor.

Suddenly, my emotions felt more sharp than ever. Well, actually only one emotion: pain. I felt as if my bones were on fire. That was fine, right? I mean, my dad was the god of the sun. That was, like, a big fiery gas ball. I should be fine.

But I wasn't. I kept seeing images of my friends, and my dad. And my mom. The people closest to me. They all shared my pain. I saw three people more than the others: Kole, Nico, and Avery. I was pretty sure it was trying to tell me something, but I was in too much agony to actually care. I mean, when you feel like you're in a fire, creepy images aren't exactly on the top of the list of worries you have. Well, duh. You should have been able to figure that out on your own.

The bad thing was, the pain never faded. I still felt it as hard minutes, or however long it was, later. I still felt as if I was being stabbed with razor-sharp knives. Same as before.

Then it stopped. The sudden jolt into reality probably hurt more than what would happen if it continued. If that makes sense, which it probably doesn't.

I moaned. I wondered if that would happen again if I tried to open the box. It was enough to make me stall. I kept on telling myself that I could die if it happened again. The experience had shaken me.

Then I took a deep breath, knowing I had to do this. For Kole. For my friends. For this whole demented world that relied on me getting this stupid thing back to camp to use in a some weird battle. I concentrated on the beginning of the list.

I slowly inched my hand towards the treasure chest. When I grabbed the handle, I calmed down, but barely. I opened it up, and slowly reached my other hand in to it. I guess the pain thing was just to convince people to not open it again. Under normal circumstances, it would have worked. No question.

I looked into the box before I grabbed whatever it was. It was a crude-looking sword. It was a gray. Maybe kind of smoky colored, but lighter. From what I had heard about it, this fit the description of the famous Sword of Death. Whoopee. My dad thought this would be a nice little trinket to add to our collection of life-threatening objects.

When I touched the sword, dark emotions clouded my senses. It was like before when I was opening the box, only a different emotion and not as intense. It was grief, I think. Boy, wasn't that a great thought!

I tried to ignore the emotions. It was hard. Probably like how hard it was to forget a loved one after the left for the Underworld. Yeah, pretty much impossible. Grief is an intense feeling. I kept picturing Kole over and over again, and it wasn't improving my conscience. He had died because of this stupid quest, and all of us on it. That's me!

After a bit, the grief faded into a dull throbbing. I was able to ignore it, but it was still there. I had a feeling it would remain until I let go of the sword. Needless to say, I was rushing to get out of there. I took off, glad to leave the island. The obstacles, if you could call them that, weren't there on the way back, that the gods. It would have been tough flying around some birds carry a sword. Since the Sword of Death kills people when you cut their hair, would it kill a bird if you cut its feathers? You know what, it doesn't matter.

I was flying back over the lake, looking for where my friends were. Hey, give me a break, it was a circle, and every direction looked completely the same. I finally spotted some people by the entrance we had walked through. Oh, um, duh. Right, I should have known that.

I landed gracefully, or as gracefully as you could with a heavy sword half your weight. Honestly, I have no clue how I got in the air in the first place. Kole's wings were strong. And speaking of wings, everyone's attention was on them when I landed. They came off, kind of like I was shedding them. It was strange, and I was sad to see them go. They had felt so natural, I now felt kind of awkward without them. I guess I was getting, like, my land-legs or something. Whatever.

I looked at my friends. Avery's eyes were red and puffy, but she had stopped crying. I convinced myself she would be alright. She had to be. Sadie looked a bit unlike herself as well. The guys seemed their usual, pretty much, except they weren't joking at all. Everyone was dead-serious and not excited.

"Hey, Kylie," Caleb said, breaking the silence first. I think that Caleb always feels the least awkward. That's probably because there isn't enough space in his brain for it. Oh, who cares. I was just glad for the ice-breaker.

"Hi," I greeted feebly. Everyone was acting really solemn, and it was creeping me out, to be honest. Avery looked at me in the eyes. What I saw shocked me. Her normally light, carefree eyes were now dead and sunken. She had lost the sparkle in them. They looked haunted. I've heard stories about people's eyes showing what they really think, but I didn't believe it 'til now.

"What's that?" Sadie asked.

"I think it's the Sword of Death," I said. "But let's not worry about that now. I want to get out of here. The negative energy and lack of light is creeping me out and sapping my strength."

"Let me take the sword, then," Nico said. He didn't bother waiting for my answer before grabbing it out of my hands. I glared at him, and he shrugged. Boys will be boys, I guess.

"I think," Seth said, "that I can teleport us to the surface. It's going to sap all of our energy, though, so be careful. It'll be easier now, for…various reasons."

"Do it," Avery said, without cheer. I don't blame her.

"Alright," Seth said. And with a flash of light, we disappeared.

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**A/N- Aren't endings my specialty? I thought that was terrible, but I figured ya'll would want to read this. And, honestly, I wasn't sure about how to make it better.**

**How about you tell me by REVIEWING!!!**

**(By the way, this story is close to a thousand hits. And fifty reviews. That makes me excited.)**


	11. Caleb Goes To Daycare

**A/N- OMG, Chapter 11! It seems like such a long time ago that I started this fic. And I'm only half-way done. About. Jeez…**

**Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah. Rick Riordan owns everything PJO-related.

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Okay, you may be thinking: A flash of light? That's so cliché. Well…it was. I'm glad we went that way, and not by traveling through the passageways again. Thank the gods for that; I'm kind of terrified of this place now.

Yeah, so, anyways, we traveled to some place that was probably right above where we were underground. It wasn't the library where we were earlier. Remember all the walking we did? It brought us a long way over. I wouldn't be surprised if we were in Indiana of something. Yippee, the Hoosier State.

"So…" said Sadie, trying to lighten the mood, "who wants to go to that rally I was talking about?"

None of us smiled. We weren't all that excited. Or in the mood to be laughing. I appreciated the thought, though, so I tried to make it less awkward for her.

"Well, considering we're going back to camp now that we have that, I think that going to Chicago would be a bad idea."

"Um, Kylie," Nico said, "we're practically already in Chicago. In fact, it's on the way. Let's go."

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"I hate hiking," Caleb complained about ten minutes later.

"Oh, shut up, Caleb," Avery snapped. Let's just say that she wasn't back to her normal self. And, again, that's completely understandable. If my boyfriend died I would slice off Caleb's head too. I practically want to do it now, and I'm in a decent mood. I guess that's how annoying Caleb was. I wonder if he'll ever grow up.

"Can we all just be quiet?!" Seth asked, frustrated. Sadie opened and closed her fingers, and mouthed 'blah, blah, blah, blah, blah'. I grinned and tried to not laugh. I'm a pro.

"Right after you are," I told Seth. I think Nico was more irritated than Seth, actually. Once I saw his expression (he looked like he was going to send one of us to the Underworld), I was kind of creeped out, so I just shut up.

"Well, we're here anyways," Sadie, being positive. That was a bit of a relief, 'cause we had been walking sort of near the highway, and some people were looking at us like we were homeless. Which, at the moment, we were, but they didn't need to know that.

Seth had changed back into his normal clothes, thank the gods. He's such a creep. We still had dirt stains and were pretty bruised. We all had a few cuts that had stopped bleeding a while ago, but still hurt and were still visible. None of us were in great shape, to say the least. Whatever.

I found that I actually liked Chicago a bit. Sure, it was windy and there wasn't much sun, but it was also really beautiful. Like, with the architecture and stuff. I mean, I'm not really into that sort of thing, but this was cool. It was actually a lot like New York. It felt a bit like home. You can't go wrong with gangs, criminals, creeps, and crooks. Good morning, Chicago!

Actually, it was kind of late. I would be worried except for the fact that there were six of us, and we had sharp, point objects. Actually, they didn't do squat to mortals, but there were still tons of people on the sidewalk, and we blended in easily.

We found a hot dog stand and got some hot dogs. Oh my gods, they were amazing. We were strolling down the streets later when I realized it had gotten a ton darker and there were way less people out. I started getting worried, but I was still with the others. That was reassuring, until we ran into some scary teenagers.

"Hello," one said terrifyingly, "and welcome to our fortress. Here we practice the art of Black Magic, and we honor the Greek Goddess Hecate…"

We all looked at each other. And then at Seth. I would have laughed, but I wasn't so stupid as to not realize that we were in a dangerous situation. Seth was looking a bit freaked out, and I don't blame him. I mean, some freaky teens were honoring his mother and practicing 'Black Magic'. Yeah, real magical.

"Well, uh, we'll just be going," Seth said. "Wouldn't want to waste your time…"

"Yeah, go on practicing your magic tricks," Caleb said. "Don't worry, we won't bother you."

We sprinted out of there real quick. No need to stick around. Once we were far away, we stopped to catch our breath. Looking around, I noticed all of us grinning. Then we all burst out laughing at the hilarity of the situation.

"That was funny," Sadie said, giggling.

"Yeah, I can't believe people who practice 'Black Magic' honor your mother, Seth." Caleb's laugh was weird. It was like he was guffawing. Well, actually, I don't really know what that is, but it _sounds_ weird, alright? Yeah, I thought so.

"Kole would have loved it!" said Avery enthusiastically. Our smiles slowly faded, Avery's the quickest. The mention of Kole not being here had instantly erased any short spell of happiness we had found.

"I bet he would have," I mumbled sadly. This may be selfish, but I really wished she hadn't mentioned Kole and brought down the spirit. I loved smiles. They were bright, and I love bright and shiny things. It depressed me that nobody had sunny smiles on their faces. Huh. Maybe I should smile more often.

There was about a minute of silence in respect for Kole. I wondered what they had done with his body, 'cause I didn't see it when we came to the surface. Were we going to have a funeral for him? It only seemed right.

"We need to burn his shroud," Nico said.

"Yeah, definitely," I said.

"I wish he was still alive," Avery said. I looked at her.

"Avery, we all do…"

"No! You're all just glad that you've survived! You _are_ sad about Kole, but you're also glad that it wasn't _you_! I didn't want him to make that stupid oath, but he did! And Kylie, your father is the one who told us to find the stupid griffons!"

I didn't respond. She was right, but I think she might be going a little crazy because of Kole's death.

"Avery," Nico said, "it wasn't Kylie's fault. You know that. You're just upset."

"DON'T TELL ME WHOSE FAULT IT WAS, NICO DI ANGELO!!!" Why is it that Nico is always the one to get yelled at by girls. There was plenty to yell at Caleb and Seth about. Maybe I'll do that…

"Whoa," Caleb said, "Avery, just calm down. Seriously."

Sadie and Seth looked like they didn't want to get involved in our argument. I wish I wasn't. Of course, Caleb didn't care. He thrived on fights and stuff like that. Weird kid.

"Let's just get going," Avery grumbled after glaring at Caleb. I guess that's a good thing. Now she's mad at Caleb.

"Yeah, we'll have to," said Seth. "There's some goblins following us!"

I spun to look in the direction. Oh my gods, gross. Goblins are the single, most hideous-looking creatures I have ever seen. There skin was slimy and green. They were short, but there a ton of them. They had long noses, and small eyes. And no eyebrows. Weird. They were evil-looking. Unfortunately, we were going have to fight them. Great. I'm so excited.

We ran into the nearest building, which just happened to be a hospital. I have a feeling we were going to be disrupting the peace. If there was any peace in a hospital with dying people. Ah, whatever.

The first section that the goblins found us at was the daycare section. Or, I guess, it's more like night-care. Some of these doctors ended up staying late. Their kiddies were in a room with a middle-aged lady. I heard one of them shout, "MONSTERS!" I wondered if he was talking about the book they were reading or the goblins. Who cares…

I shot of a couple of arrows. I didn't want to use the explosives, considering we were indoors. And in a hospital. With children. I noticed the teacher jump out of the window. Yikes. That _has_ to hurt. Maybe she thought there were terrorists in the building.

"Hey Caleb!" I shouted. "Watch the kids until we drive them away!" Caleb looked at me like '_What the heck?!_' I shrugged. I didn't tell him it was part of my plan to ruin his life. Caleb hates kids. Thy are the bane of his existence.

After he ducked and rolled, he got to the children. I heard him say, "So…do any of you know patty-cake?" I grinned, in spite of the situation. I bet Caleb didn't know patty-cake. And if he did, I was going to tease him relentlessly.

Nico was doing some pretty cool things with his sword. I briefly wondered if it had a name. Well, anyways, he sliced through, like, five goblins at the same time. It was pretty sweet. Seth was firing short burst of sunlight or something like that at them. It was pretty effective, and the goblins kept bursting into dust after yelling about the terrible light. Hey! I happen to really like the sun. I noticed Seth had gotten back into his robes. He really needed a wardrobe check.

Sadie was wrapping the goblins up in vines and stabbing them with her dagger. She kept shouting "Sorry!" every time she attacked them, despite the fact they were monsters. Avery was slicing and cutting like crazy. I think she was trying to take out her anger about Kole's death on the goblins. Go Avery!

As for me, I shot of the ones that were sneaking up on the others. I was feeling pretty good about myself, until one snuck up on me. Nico stabbed it just before it got _me_. He smiled at me, and was off. For a second I was stunned, before I realized there was a battle going on around me. I focused real quick.

Soon enough, we had gotten most of them, and only had a few scrapes. Goblins weren't all that smart. Numbers made them dangerous, though. I guess we did pretty well.

I took a few deep breaths, and the first thing I did was look to see what Caleb was doing. The kids were surrounding him and painting his face. I burst out laughing. The others looked at me weird, and I pointed to Caleb. I couldn't speak, I was so overwhelmed by giggles.

The others slowly grinned. Everyone but Avery. She had a look of hatred on her face. It almost scared me, 'cause I've never seen Avery truly mad before. I've seen her stricken by grief, crazed by anger, but never like that. I pretty much stopped smiling.

When Avery saw me looking, she changed her expression. It was a totally fake smile. It didn't fool me. Avery and I were close. Before. I wasn't so sure now. Things with our group were getting strange.

That night, we set up camp in a subway station. Call us idiots (Caleb is), but we did. After talking for a bit, we all went to sleep. Oh my gods, it's been a long day. Nico still had the Sword of Death, and we were going to bring it to the gods. Things were looking up. Feeling kind of happy, I went to sleep. Hey, we each had watch, so we weren't being completely irresponsible.

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The next morning, I woke up because someone was shaking me. Would they stop already?

"Go away!" I moaned.

"Kylie, I'm sorry, but we've got more important things to worry about than you getting enough sleep." Nico seemed really angry, which woke me up a bit. I wanted to scoot away, but Nico still had a grip on my arm.

"Ugh, and what would that be?" I asked.

"The sword is gone. And we think Avery took it."

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**A/N- Dun, dun, dun!!! Cliffhanger. Oh, whatever, it isn't that great.**

**Okay, I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday. I had stuff to do. How unspecific can I get, right? (Actually, a lot more.) Sorry, I had a book to read. More accurately, _The Soldiers of Halla._ Good book, weird ending.**

**I'm trying to get the romance in there, sorry. But there probably will be some serious stuff in the next chapter.  
**

**Anyways, please review!**


	12. Nico Takes A Risk

**A/N- Chapter 12! Well, there's only…7 more chapters left. About. Including this one. That's actually a lot. I'll probably be done not this Thursday, but the next one. Probably. Wow.**

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan, obviously, owns PJO. Must I always repeat myself?

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Ten minutes later, we were aboveground wondering what in Hades we were going to do next. I can't believe Avery did that. I was furious. I couldn't believe she would betray us like that. We were friends. Good friends. Kole's death had hit her harder than I thought, I think. I would have felt sorry for her, but I was too busy worrying.

Ah, worry. That's another emotion I was feeling. I almost didn't want to know what she was doing with the Sword of Death. Killing people? I knew in my heart, despite my hopes, that she wasn't just getting a head start. No, Avery had betrayed us and was doing something terrible.

I was also scared. My heart was beating faster than normal and I wished that I could reverse everything. This wasn't what was supposed to happen! …Right? I was confusing myself so much and it hurt. I wondered what Avery was doing with the sword. Did she know something we didn't? Was she taking it to some unknown enemy?

I groaned. "She definitely stole it, and she's planning something bad. I can feel it. Don't ask me how; I don't know. I think she's taking it to someone."

"Then you're right," Seth said. When I looked at him, confused, he shrugged. "Your dad is Apollo. The god of prophecy. Some kids are really good at poetry, or doctor stuff. And some, like you, have feelings like you know what's going to happen." As an afterthought, he added, "That's pretty handy. Well, it would be if you could control it. Can you?"

"I don't know."

"That's really cool," Sadie said. I wondered why we were talking about this. I guess we were trying to release stress. "All I can do is control plants, which is sometimes helpful, but boring. And my dad's a farmer. No offense to my mother, but isn't that typical?"

"As interesting as this conversation is," Caleb cut in, bothered, "we have other things to worry about."

We whirled around. "Alright, dude, no need to get worked up," Seth replied. I agreed. How rude.

"We need to get out of the city," Nico said. He seemed seriously annoyed. I realized he wasn't about to get sidetracked. Avery was still out there.

"Why?" Seth asked.

"'Cause I need to summon the dead. And I can't do that in the city. We have to leave."

Okay…that's creepy. Nico can summon the dead? Caleb was also looking at him strangely. Sadie and Seth seemed to already know this, and I remembered that they had both gone to camp when the war was going on. Nico had probably done some freaky stuff then too.

"Okay," Caleb said, "where are we going? And why do you need to summon the dead?"

"They see all. Know all," Nico said. Oh my gods…"And, we're going to Los Angeles. Eventually. Right now, I want to get a train going north. Like, Minnesota or something. I'll summon the dead there."

"Um, why Los Angeles?" I asked.

"Underworld," came Nico's short response. Well, jeez, no need to get snippy. Just a question.

"How classic," Sadie scoffed, "a child of Hades suggests we go to the Underworld. And why do to Minnesota?"

"You have a better idea?" Nico shouted. His expression grew dark. "I don't like the Underworld, anyways. There are so many dead people from the war… And besides, I want to visit St. Paul."

"Why St. Paul?" I asked.

"Who cares?" Caleb asked. "Let's just catch a train. I bet one will be leaving soon. Although, it would be very weird to have a train to go St. Paul. Who commutes _from_ Chicago."

"Wow, big words."

"Yeah, let's go. I can manipulate the Mist," Nico said.

------- ------- -------

This time, the train ride brought us straight to St. Paul. It only lasted maybe five hours. WE were now standing in a city, and I looked at Nico.

"So, is this a good place to summon the dead?" I asked him.

"No, I need to get some food for them." What the heck? It's official. Dead people are creepy. Oh, well, duh. That's stupid of me. Nico's creepy too. Who feeds the dead? What do they want, a Big Mac? I grinned at the thought.

It turns out, though, the dead really like McDonalds. We bought a few. Who would have known? After that, we headed out of the city. It wasn't nearly as big as Chicago, but I was glad for my legs sake that we got a ride on a bus to take us to the edge of the city.

"Nico," I asked slowly, "why did you want to visit St. Paul if we aren't staying?"

He shrugged. "I don't really care about St. Paul. I just suggested a random place." Weirdo.

From there, we stole another truck. Unfortunately, we didn't have Avery, so we almost got caught. I love Seth's magic. We drove the truck for a couple of hours, and we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere. Well, actually, we were by this wicked forest. I realized Nico was going to summon the dead from here. You would think that someone who supposedly hears lots of gossip would be hanging around in the middle of nowhere, but I guess it's not my place to judge. Nico said it was perfect, so I believe him. He's been right so far.

"Well, now we just have to wait until the sun goes down," Nico said. Oh, shoot…

"Wow!" Seth exclaimed with false excitement. "That would be great, except for the fact that it's about three o'clock and the sun doesn't go down until about nine. It's June 17 for gods' sake!"

"Oh…whatever."

"What a moron," Caleb scoffed.

"Uh, Caleb, do you even know why that's a big deal?" Sadie asked. I smiled. Shot down…

He glared at her. "Of course. It's 'cause of the summer solstice. Longest day of the year. And the other days around it are long." Well, I guess there's a smart son of Ares. Or, at least, one that's not completely hopeless. It's phenomenal!

"But, seriously," I asked, "what in Hades are we going to do for six hours?"

"Let's explore," Sadie said. She was really perky. I hadn't really realized it before, but she could be pretty girly. Not as much as Avery, but still. Sadie didn't mind getting dirty as much, though. She loved the earth and animals and stuff. I didn't have to ask to know she wasn't into electronic things.

"Great," Seth said, "sounds fun". Obviously being sarcastic. He was a lot. How negative of him. Not that I was particularly positive, but I wasn't all 'Oh, how brilliant of you'. Sarcasm didn't work for me; it sounded like I was lying, and I was a terrible liar, clearly. Sadie stuck her tongue out childishly at Seth. Hey, we were stressed out; we needed to act immature a bit. It usually helped relieve stress. Or something like that. I'm not a doctor, so I wouldn't know. Actually, I kind of am, so I might… You know what, this is confusing me.

We ended up walking deep into the forest. I was sad to leave the car. You know, I was surprised that cops weren't chasing us yet. We've stolen two cars, gotten a bus ride, and snuck on three trains. We were, like, juvenile delinquents. It didn't help my conscience.

Then we found a creek. It was pretty cool, and we washed up. Considering it was probably about six, we decided to camp there for the night. It was a good place to stay. We may have been on a tight schedule, but Nico's plan made things a bit different.

It felt amazing to clean up. My hair didn't feel filthy afterwards, thank the gods. My clothes got wet, though, so it was annoying waiting for them to dry. Especially since there was no way I was going to take them off. The others were washing up too. Well, sort of. The guys had just jumped in the river and were splashing each other. How immature.

Anyways, we passed the time doing various things. After we built a fire, Sadie grew some potatoes real quick. I realized she actually had to place seeds on the ground, and then they grew. She carried a bunch around with her. We had baked potatoes and some other yummy stuff. Mmm, I'm real full. Nothing like a good, old, lumpy, gross potato to satisfy you.

We told some scary stories, but it wasn't completely dark, so the effect wasn't as good. Nico knew some incredible ghost stories. The freakiest thing, though, was that they seemed real. I shivered at the thought that they might have actually happened. He knew a little too much. Nico definitely needed to lighten up.

A while later, Nico got up. "It's getting dark, so I should get going. I saw a clearing a bit off, I'm going to go there. Kylie, come with me." Why me? What did I do? I seemed unfair to be singled out.

"Um, no offense, but why only Kylie?" Sadie asked. Yeah, I'd like to know too.

"'Cause I decided Kylie was coming. And I'm only bringing one person, 'cause last time there were five others, and it messed up my concentration."

"Why'd you pick me?" I asked. Nico looked a bit embarrassed, but shrugged it off. Fine, don't tell me.

We walked off a Nico found a clearing. He didn't do anything, though, but he fidgeted a bit. He seemed really uncomfortable, and I wondered why.

"Uh, Nico?" I asked, gesturing towards the clearing. "You going to do something, 'cause I'm waiting."

"It's early," said Nico roughly, stepping closer to me. We were almost touching. My cheeks went red, but I didn't move. My head was spinning around, and I could barely focus. Nico continued.

"I didn't just decide to bring you here," Nico said, caressing my skin. I started breath fast. "I didn't want the others to come." He moved even closer, though I didn't know it was possible.

Then he leaned in and kissed me. It was my first kiss. We closed our eyes. Originally I thought that I didn't want it, but I felt myself kissing back. I felt his arms wrap around my waist, pulling me closer. I tentatively brought my arms up and draped them around his neck, and entangled my fingers in his hair. It was shaggy, and silky.

It lasted kind of long. Neither of us pulled away at first. It was too great. Neither of us were probably good kissers, but it didn't matter. I felt myself let go of my worries and just think about Nico. We pulled away, barely, gasping for breath and opening our eyes. I was shocked to look into his eyes. They were only maybe less than an inch away. I realized I had never looked straight at Nico like this. He always ducked his head. I loved the chance I had to actually look at him. His eyes were the type that went right to the soul. They were almost black, maybe a shade lighter. They was dark, but I instantly went crazy about them.

Nico brought his hand up to push back a strand of hair that had come loose while we were kissing. "Kylie…" he said in a low tone, "I really like you."

I couldn't stop myself from gasping slightly. There they were. The magic words. I felt I could barely talk, but I managed to say, "I…I think I like you a lot too." Oh, I sounded so stupid.

Nico leaned in to kiss me again. It was almost as magical as the first time, but in a completely different way. This time is was shorter, sweeter. He pulled away, and whispered, "It's dark." I stepped away, kind of unhappy. Then I felt weird 'cause of that. Okay, no reason why things would be awkward…right?

Surprisingly, they weren't. With a flick of his wrist, Nico made a grave-sized hole in the ground near us. He looked a me and grinned. I momentarily swooned, and then berated myself for acting like such a girly-girl. I couldn't help it though; I had officially fallen for Nico di Angelo.

Nico poured some water out from a canteen. I hadn't realized he had it. He also tossed the Big Macs we had gotten in the pit. "This will be weird," he warned me before he started chanting in Ancient Greek. This seemed like a cheesy horror movie.

Everything got still, and I shivered. It was unnatural, but Nico didn't seem to notice. I realized then that being a child of Hades really separated him from others. He was different, darker. I wanted him to stop, but I knew this was for the better.

A few shadows got thicker and took form. This was it.

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**A/N- Well, that's Chapter 12. Sorry, I had trouble writing that love scene. Not my specialty. Sorry if you didn't like it. And if it was too unrealistic to you, with a couple of fourteen-year-olds kissing like that, well…it seemed reasonable to me…**

**Please review!**


	13. Avery Pays Up

**A/N- Well…Chapter 13. Don't worry, despite the fact that there's romance, doesn't mean there won't be any action. Actually, adventure is one of the genres and romance isn't. Well, one of the main ones. Whatever… Hope you like this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns it all. Except for my OCs. And the plot. And…an incredible idea from ** **365 Pages of Awsomeness** **(Love the idea.)

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Yeah, so, the shadows drank the meal Nico got for them. It seemed entirely unappetizing to me, but they loved it. Well, the dead have strange food tastes. I guess you kind of loose your taste buds when you die. Well, there's a surprise.

The first ghost that solidified was a women. It was really creepy. You see, they would feast, and once they had, you could pretty much tell what they once looked like. This women had dark hair and warm brown eyes. She was wearing clothes from, like, the 1940s or something. You know, the time period when people wore loincloths and hunted mammoths for sport. Like, ages ago.

She was pretty. The creepy part was that she looked a ton like Nico. I looked at him, trying to figure out what exactly was similar in their appearances. When I saw Nico's face, I started to see that this was more than I originally thought. He was looking at her like she was a ghost, which, well, she was. I think he might have known her when she was alive, though. I wondered how at what their relationship was, and then I figured out they were probably related. This could be, like, his mom or something.

"…Mom?" Nico asked disbelievingly. See, I'm good. He took a step closer to her, and then another. Her form smiled a bit a him. She brought up a hand to hold his face, but her hand wouldn't hold onto anything. It turned to smoke, but the rest of her was still there. It was weird, really. I wondered how she had died, but I knew it wasn't my place to ask. I could guess that it was tragic, though. I'm not an idiot, despite what my teachers seem to think.

"Hello Nico," she said, smiling at him gently. "I haven't seen you for seventy-six years. You've grown a bit since then." Whoa, pause. Rewind. _Seventy-six years_? What the heck? Oh my gods, Nico is at least seventy-six years old. Well, older. That is _so _messed up. I wondered what had happened.

I couldn't believe it, but I think Nico's eyes teared up. He didn't let the tears fall, but still. Nico didn't cry.

"I…I found out how you died," Nico said. I'm pretty sure I had been forgotten by now. I wondered why Nico didn't know how his own mother died. "And everything else. Father got angry. He still thinks that Bianca could do everything better than me." I could kind of feel the emotional moment, so I backed up a bit.

"Oh, honey," his mother said passionately. "Bianca and you are equal. I'm sorry about what happened to her. I know you'll be fine, though. But that's not what I need to tell you about."

Nico took a shaky breath, and I knew that if he did cry, tears would be falling. My heart went out to him. I didn't know exactly what happened, but I did know it wasn't good.

His mother continued. "I've been watching your quest," she said. I blushed a bit at the thought. "And I know what happened with Kole and Avery. She took the Sword of Death when he died. In her fragile state, the Giants were able to convince her to."

"Wait a second…" Nico said. "The Giants? What are they doing?"

She looked around urgently. "Time is growing short," she said. "And I don't know. That's for you to find out. They were in the Underworld, though, and I can only assume that's where you're going. You need to stop her. With the artifact, I believe they could gain enough power to take over Olympus."

"Not again…" he moaned. I grinned.

His mother's image started to fade. "Nico, I don't have much longer. I love you. Always have, always will."

He gave a small smile. "I know. I love you too."

She smiled at him, and looked at me. "And try not to mess things up." I got red, and I think Nico was a little pink too. "Bianca loves you too."

He nodded. "Will you tell her I miss her?" he asked. I think he was feeling a bit more relaxed and less emotional, but he was still not himself.

His mother nodded. "She already knows," she said. "But she's glad that you've let her go. It's best for you to try to socialize with people, and not dead ones." I smiled at that. Of course, a child of Hades hangs out with dead people all of the time. Why am I not surprised?

"Remember what I said" are the last words his mother spoke before disappearing, leaving no trace.

------- ------- -------

We walked back to camp. Now things were awkward. We kept on steeling glances at each other, but both of us knew the other saw us. Neither of us said a word. When we came within range, we were able to hear Seth, Sadie, and Caleb talking. It didn't seem like anything serious, and when we walked into camp, they quieted to hear what happened.

"Hey," I said.

"What'd you find out?" Caleb asked, getting right to the point. You gotta love Caleb. That one just doesn't bother wasting time. It's always straight to the point.

"Uh, we have to go to the Underworld," Nico said. He was back to his regular self now. Not much emotion. You know, boring ole Nico. Who just kissed me. "Apparently, there's some big, ugly baddies we need to take care of." He does have a sense of humor! The others looked at him weird. "Oh, uh, Avery, obviously, took the sword and brought it to the Giants. They visited her in her dreams or something and we able to convince her to steal it and bring it to them."

"Oh yeah," I added, "if the Giants get the sword, they'll be able to take down Olympus."

"Oh, yeah, there's that," said Nico. "Nothing too bad."

The others seemed a bit confused. "Sleep tight," I said.

------- ------- -------

Sadie and I were laying next to each other later, talking. You see, it was night, and we decided to split up. Sadie and I were about thirty yards from where the boys were. I guess it was kind of cool to have girl time. With Avery gone, I had a feeling that Sadie and I would be getting close. And you know what, I liked Sadie. She wasn't Avery, but that was alright. I did miss my old friend's bubbly attitude, though. It didn't seem right gossiping without her.

"So…" Sadie said, "give me the details!" She was smiling big. Sadie's, like, really beautiful. I'm jealous. I kind of wondered why she was going out with a half-goat. She could probably get any guy she wanted. But then again, Sadie can be really moody, so…whatever.

I responded to her comment with a blush. "Um…what details? What could you be talking about? I have no clue…" She looked at me condescendingly.

"You know what I'm talking about," she said. "You and Nico were gone way before it was dark. You were doing something while you waited. What is it?"

I couldn't talk. I was really embarrassed. Was it that obvious something had happened?

"Uh…"

"Oh, come on," Sadie pressed. "Something happened, it's really obvious." Well, I guess that answers my question.

"Okay, okay," I said, trying to calm her down. I took a breath. "Um, yeah, something happened. We, uh, kissed."

Sadie squealed and I was sure the guys looked over. Sadie didn't care, though. She gave me a hug. When she backed off, she looked at me and said, "You don't seem as excited as me. I mean, Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, the guy who was practically raised in the Underworld and likes spending time there, likes you. There are a ton of girls back at camp who have crushes on him, but I told them I didn't think he was capable of love." Her expression turned sad.

"Whoa, Sadie, what did you say? Love? We don't love each other. We just kissed. Talk to any other teen, and they've probably had their first kiss. And they probably don't love that person."

"Wait…this was your first kiss?" Sadie seemed excited. "Oh my gosh, that's so romantic."

"Sadie…you're acting more like a daughter of Aphrodite than a daughter of Demeter…" By this point, I was freaked out enough to throw her in the river.

She looked apologetic. "Sorry, it's just that my best friend back at camp is from the Aphrodite cabin. Sometimes she rubs off on me…"

"No, really?" I asked sarcastically.

"Sorry," she said again. I shrugged.

"Alright, but that really freaked me out. I don't love Nico. We're not even going out."

"You're not going out?" Sadie asked. She looked annoyed. "Men. They _always_ think that they can just do whatever they want and get away with it. Their so stupid. Can I slap him for you?" I wish I had popcorn…

"No," I said. "Unfortunately, I do like him a bit…" Sadie grinned, like she knew it.

"Alright, that's all I needed to know," she said. I gave her a glare. "'Night."

I was there long after Sadie was asleep, thinking that despite her flaws, Sadie was really nice. She was a bit strange, but she was loyal. I could tell. And don't ask how, because I have super powers. That's how. Oh yeah, been there, done that. In your face.

I got to sleep, but I didn't sleep tight.

------- ------- -------

I had a dream, and by this point, I knew demigod dreams were terrible. They actually, like, show you things that are happening. This was not what I wanted to see happen.

I saw Avery. She was in a studio, with a ton of people sitting at tables. Actually, they weren't people. They were, like, images or something. When I studied them, they weren't really there. Or they were transparent or something. I realized they were the dead. Oh, I can tell this dream will be great!

I noticed Avery's appearance had changed a bit. She was wearing dark skinny jeans and a navy blue, expensive-looking top. I bet she stole it. She cut her hair shorter, and now it was to her shoulders, fanning out perfectly. It had a dark blue streak in it. Show-off.

Anyways, Avery was standing at the counter, talking to a guy in an expensive suit. His name tag read _'Charon'_. To my surprise, the letters weren't jumbled up! I guess I can read perfectly in dreams. Well, I'm not really there, and I can't do anything, so why not? It seemed fair to me…

"Why won't you let me across?!" she demanded. She was wearing kind of thick eye-liner (it still looked good, of course), and her glare was evil. She had become the type of person she used to think was a fashion disaster. "I gave you a drachma. Hell, I gave you two, 'cause _you_ said alive people were double!"

Charon shrugged. "Sorry, the regular fee is two drachmas now. You need four." Oh my gods, I was almost on Avery's side on this. He's annoying.

She took out the Sword of Death, threateningly. "_Dear_," he said sarcastically, "that won't do anything. You're in the land of the dead. Now pay up." She got really mad, and slammed two more drachmas on the counter. Where she got the money, I have no clue, but it kept comin'.

"Let me in!" she insisted. She was really mad.

"Not until you pay in full," he said.

"I did!" she practically growled.

"No, you paid four drachmas. The price is eight."

"You just said it was four!"

"The price went up."

She slammed down four more drachmas on the counter. "Now let me into the stickin' Underworld!"

I was hoping he wouldn't, and would say the price was sixteen drachmas, but he seemed to know he had pushed her to her limit. "Alright, alright," he said. "You can go to the Underworld. I don't care what you're doing."

Together, they went into the elevator. Avery seemed relieved, although she didn't really show it.

I woke up, startled. Time was running out.

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**A/N- Alright, that was Chapter 13! Hope you enjoyed!**

**Yeah, so** **365 Pages of Awsomeness **** owns the idea that Nico's mom is the ghost they talk to. Thank you!**

**Please review!**


	14. Sadie Becomes Dr Phil

**A/N- Chapter 14…Wow. Am I the only one who's excited? I hope not… Anyways, enjoy.**

**P.S. By the way, it would be helpful if certain reviewers had read the first chapter of the Lightning Thief. For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, that's 'cause it's not you. Feel free to check the story's reviews.  
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**Disclaimer: Yeah, Rick Riordan owns PJO. So, no, I won't sign your book…

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The next day, we were all a bit clueless as to how we were going to get to the Underworld before Avery messed up everything for eternity. Or something else cryptic like that. Whatever, who cares about that? Well, apparently the gods do, so we have to figure out a way to stop her and the Giants.

"So Nico," Caleb asked miserably, "know any good ways to get to the Underworld?" We were all in bad moods. When I had given news of what I found out, the others had pretty much all groaned and started swearing. Hey, we were pretty much screwed anyways, why not act like we were feeling?

"Around here?" Nico asked. "Nope."

"Oh, great," I said. "Let's just catch the express to Olympus and say we're all going to die."

"It'd be nice if we could do that, wouldn't it?" asked Seth wistfully. "There would be no pressure or anything. We could tell someone else it was their problem and not have to really worry about Zeus zapping us."

Sadie stood up. "As great as that would be," she said, "we have to get going. We _are_ the ones on a quest, and we _will_ get blasted by Zeus if we screw things up. Now, Zeus help me, get up, or I swear I will drag you all to the Underworld and drop you in the River Styx. Come on." Isn't she just darling?

Seriously, though, that's the nice thing about Sadie. There's no false pretenses. She's down to earth. (Haha, get it, 'down to earth'?)

I got up, albeit slowly. I wasn't really in the mood, by with Sadie, there's no telling what she'd actually do. She might actually go through with her threat. Or not. But she would still do something not-so-nice. I didn't want to find out.

The boys got up too, and soon we were wandering through the forest. Seth used some magic and found an exit. Handy. "You know," Caleb said, "it would be awesome if you could use magic to get us into the Underworld." Well, could he be any more rude? "This is pretty useless." That answers my question…

"Gee, Caleb," Sadie said, "are you trying to be mean or does it just come naturally?"

"It's in my blood," he responded. Ugh, this guy is _so_ annoying.

"I hate to break up your spat, but we have bigger things to worry about than whether or not Caleb has reached any level of maturity." Nico looked really annoyed.

"We should get a train," Seth said. "Or a bus. Or something. We need to get to LA."

"No need," said Nico. "I know about an entrance in Casper, Wyoming."

"Why'd you keep it a secret?" Sadie demanded.

"Uh…"

"There's an entrance to the Underworld besides the one in LA?" I asked. I seriously thought that the only entrance was there.

"Um, yeah. There's a ton of entrances, but the two big ones are in LA and New York. I found this one while I was running away from some monsters Zeus sent after me. I really don't like that guy." Thunder boomed, lightning crackled, and for a second I thought that Zeus was going to blast Nico. But Nico was still there when it ended, so I guess he's good. I wondered if he had said that before. Probably.

"Let's find a train station," said Nico.

"Um, good idea," I said. "But, unfortunately, we're in the middle of NOWHERE, and we have no clue where the nearest train station _is_."

"There's that," said Nico. "But it doesn't really matter... There's a Roc following us! Run!"

Now, for you idiots who don't know what Rocs are, picture this: a huge, brown bird with really wide wings, feathers the size of palms, and a beak so big it could swallow me whole. And it was going to. Oh, how fun.

I would never tell the others this, but standing there, with a giant bird about to eat me, I was terrified. Like, curl up in a hole and die terrified. It was _that_ scary. I wanted to run and hide, but that would be wimpy. Actually, I wasn't even sure if I cared it was wimpy because it freaked me out so much. It's not every day you have the possibility of becoming something's food. Or maybe it is. I wouldn't want to be you, in that case. But I'm probably as bad off.

I had taken out my bow and shot a few arrows, but it only bothered the Roc. I wondered if my sonic arrows would do anything, but I was so near combining the screeching it was making and my arrow would probably make me deaf. Why am I the one with all the bad luck?

"Kylie, get moving!" Caleb shouted. The one good thing about him is that he doesn't bother making you feel nice when he saves you. Nico's a bit like that. With a hero's complex, and stuff. Kole was, like, the perfect example of that. When I say 'that', I mean a hero, but it doesn't really matter, so what the heck.

I jumped out of the way, just in time. After it was done screaming like a banshee, it went after me. I made a mental note to thank Caleb. As thick as he was, he could sometimes be helpful. Sadie gave me a short smile, like she thought I was a goner. Well, I almost was.

Nico came up with a brilliant idea right then. "Guys, let's take those bikes!" Now, I know what you're thinking: a bike? He wants to try to outride a Roc on a bicycle? But it wasn't like that. He was talking about motorcycles. I loved the idea, especially 'cause one of the bikes was yellow. That's my favorite color. I got on and put on my helmet. Nico had jumped on a black bike right away and had already hot-wired it. There were three other bikes besides the aforementioned, a dark red one, a dark blue one, and one that was hot pink. Caleb, Seth, and Sadie took those respectively.

We made a quick getaway, but the Roc kept up with us. It wouldn't be half a monster it couldn't. But we had a head start, so it had trouble attacking us. In short, the bikes were really helpful. We found a way of transportation, and we got out of the way of the monster.

A thought came to me. "Nico, let me get on your bike!" I shouted. It was all part of the plan. He looked at me like I would totally ruin the ride, but I glared at him and he slowed down next to me. I sadly glanced back at my bike, but jumped on Nico's black one. How boring.

"What are you planning?" he yelled back to me. I grinned.

"Watch!" I shouted. Then I took my bow and aimed an arrow. It was sonic, and, well, I was very skilled at hitting moving targets. The arrow pierced the beast right in the neck. Punching the air with my fist, I shouted, "Oh yeah!"

"Gee, now I have to go the whole ride with you doing a victory dance back there," Nico said. I turned around quickly, an outraged expression on my face. I guess he's not the grateful type.

"I just took out the Roc, and you're whining about me! You're as bad as Caleb! No, wait, that's an offense to him! You're worse! Maybe I'll just go ride with Sadie. At least _she's_ not rude an ungrateful!" I would've stomped off, but, well, we were on a motorcycle and still on the run and in the middle of a road. So I just acted immature and ignored him completely.

Nico didn't speak as well. I guess that he wasn't sure what to make of my outburst. Now that I thought about it, I kind of wished I hadn't yelled at him. I may have just screwed things up. I mean, Nico could become my future boyfriend or something. But when he insulted me like that, I just got so mad. It was his fault. Mostly. He was the one who messed things up for us. Totally not my problem.

I wondered why he had done it, though. Probably because he's a boy. The rest of the ride was passed in silence. I barely paid attention when Seth did this wicked awesome spell to keep us going in the right direction. I was brooding. After our first stop, I got on Sadie's bike. I felt much more welcomed with her. She's nicer. I glared at Nico, trying to tell him without talking to him that Sadie was way cooler than him. She didn't mock people when they totally rocked. Suck that, you loser.

Of course, he may not have gotten exactly that message, but whatever. That's what I was thinking. He's such a jerk!

Sadie looked at me worriedly, but didn't comment until later in the ride. "Kylie, are you alright?" she asked. I shrugged, not looking at her.

"Maybe."

"What did Nico do?" she wondered aloud. Sadie's smart. She doesn't always show it, but she is. No question. I didn't want to tell her, but I burst.

"He's such a jerk!" I whined. "He totally ruined any romantic relationship we could have!"

"Um, Kylie," Sadie said. "It would be helpful if you told me exactly what he did. I can't exactly help you when you just complain about whatever you are complaining about.

"Oh, whatever," I said. "It doesn't matter." She looked back at me. "Stop that!" I exclaimed. She would've held up her hands, I bet, but we were still on the bike. I gave in. "Well, I was totally destroyed that monster, and then Nico goes on about how I was being annoying because I was, like, really happy. And then I got real mad, and we'll never become boyfriend and girlfriend 'cause he ruined everything 'cause he's suck an annoying prick!" I got really frustrated.

"Ky..." Sadie said hesitantly, "that's probably just because he's a boy and doesn't know how to deal with his feelings. Just let it go."

Huh. I guess I could...or not. I had already blown up at Nico, and it would be too embarrassing to try to make things right again. But then again, if I liked Nico enough, shouldn't I? Sadie left me in silence, letting me think things over.

We couldn't make it to Casper in one day. We decided to sleep in comfort that night. After hiding the bikes, Nico and Seth did their thing again, and we had two rooms for the night.

Sadie and I were in one room, the boys in the other. After getting set up, which took virtually no time 'cause we had, like, nothing, Sadie said, "Well, I'm going to see if we can get some cool extras in here. Caleb, Seth, come with me."

"Do I have to?" Caleb asked.

"Yes," she answered forcefully. Don't mess with Sadie. I wished I didn't think like that, 'cause that meant that I wasn't going to protest to being left alone with Mr. I'm-too-cool-for-you. Or, if you didn't get that, Nico. Mr. I'm-a-jerk-oh-BURN! Actually, that wasn't a good one. I'll work on those.

I glanced at Nico. He was staring determinedly at the TV. I could tell he wasn't watching it, though, 'cause it was on History Channel. Who watches that anymore?

I was bothered by the silence. "Nico," I started, "why on Olympus did you say that earlier?" Remembering what had happened got me mad. I was feeling really moody today. His fault, of course.

He didn't answer. It made my blood boil. I don't care who he thinks he is, when I ask a question, he answers!

"What did you say?" I asked with false sweetness, even though he hadn't said anything. Nico finally turned to look at me. His face held no emotion, which was to be expected.

"Kylie, we would never work out," he said, cutting right to the point. He turned back around, not facing me. I walked up to him, not exactly angry anymore. Well, I still was, but my curiousity outweighed it.

"Nico..." I said slowly.

He grabbed my wrist without looking at me. I flashed back to the day when he had first dragged me to the Chariot of Damnation. It seemed like so long ago. We had come so far. Or maybe...not.

"Kylie, I'm telling you this for your own good. It's not healthy to be near me." I was kind of feeling like Bella in Twilight. Maybe Nico was a vampire as well. And no, I haven't seen the movies or read the books, but it's kind of hard not to see trailers.

"I can't believe you think it's, like, unhealthy to be near you. What are you, a disease?" I rolled my eyes.

He turned to face me. I could see his dark eyes. They were on fire. Not literally. But it was creepy. He was looking at me so intensely, I wanted to back up, but he fist was still holding my wrist tightly. I tried shaking him off, but he wouldn't let go. I looked back up at him. He had stepped right up to me.

"Kylie, you need to understand. Everyone close to me dies. You don't want to get close to me." I didn't even know whether to answer or not.

"I...I don't care. I'm about toast anyways, right?"

He let go of me. "You don't mind getting close to me, even though I'm the _ghost king_." I did _not_ know he was, like, a ghost king. Or _the _ghost king. What, did he have a mansion in the Underworld?

"Um, well, I have no clue what that means..."

"Right, of course," he said. "You shouldn't. But you should also know that the other night was a mistake. I should have never kissed you."

After looking at him right in the eye once more, I fled the room crying.

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**A/N- Um, yeah, kind of boring chapter action-wise. Just trying to get to Casper, right? But, honestly, shame on Nico! I got mad at him writing this chapter. Actually, not really. :) Can't get mad at Nico. He's so misunderstood. -swoons-**

**Sorry about the wait. I haven't been home. Like, seriously. I wasn't just busy. I wasn't home. Sorry, again.**

**Please review! Unless it's a flame, then screw you. -sigh- I guess people won't think I'm nice anymore.  
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	15. We Take A Vacation In The Underworld

**A/N- OMG, OMG! Chapter 15! I'm getting so excited!**

**Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah. Mr. Hotshot owns the books…or Rick Riordan. Whatever.

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When I left the room, I bumped into Sadie. I immediately ran in another direction. I really wished that the guys hadn't seen me crying, but there was nothing I could do. And plus, I was still sobbing, so they probably would've heard me anyways. I bet that Nico could hear me. I kind of hoped he felt bad. It would serve him right, hurting me like that.

I stayed in the hotel hallway for a while. I didn't know where to go. I had a feeling Sadie was beating up Nico. I didn't actually feel sorry for him. Well, that's what he gets.

After I had cried for long enough, I went back to the room. Before going in, I listened at the door. When I was sure that Sadie was the only one in there, I knocked on the door. I mentally berated myself for not bringing my own key. Not that they were really keys, but whatever.

Sadie opened the door. "Kylie!" she exclaimed. "I've been waiting for you. You should tell me what happened with Nico and you. Er…um, sorry 'bout leaving…"

I closed the door behind me, and, after flopping down on one of the double beds, told her exactly. It felt good to let everything out, but it was kind of embarrassing, at the same time. Overall, I was just glad to have a friend like Sadie who listens to my problems. Before camp, I never had any friends, just, at best, acquaintances. The change was nice.

"I'm going to have a shower now," I announced after my story.

"Now?" Sadie asked.

"That's what I said, isn't it? There's no time like the present."

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The next morning we continued our ride to Casper. The weather was crazy, and I remembered the war. I hadn't thought about it in a while. The gods were all at war with each other, screwing up the world, which was depending on us. And Nico and I had relationship problems. That's a joke compared to what was really going on.

I rode with Sadie. Of course. I was sick of the boys' comments. It took some time, 'cause of traffic. I was honestly surprised that everyone was cool with everything. You know, all the people on the road? Well, yeah, no one bothered us. But I realized that was because everyone had bigger things to worry about. The sky was turning dark green, like there was a tornado.

Of course, there was. I couldn't really do anything, seeing as I was backseat. Sadie was did some pretty wicked things. She was a really good rider, though. Wow, riding a tractor really prepares you for things like this.

I was kind of mad at Zeus, but then I figured that he was mad at some other god. I briefly wondered which one, but then I saw some automatons marching across plains. That obviously meant Hephaestus. We drove out of the war zone before we saw the gods, though. I guess I'm glad. We'd probably be smashed into smithereens, and I definitely wasn't looking forward to becoming a dog bone. Gross.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. Nothing like seeing a whole cornfield grow like crazy it was totally easy to guess Demeter was doing something.

I wondered why we hadn't see any mayhem before. But after I thought about it, I realized that the war must be getting worse. That meant that we had even less time. Oh crap.

Casper, Wyoming came pretty quickly. What can I say about it? Boring. Well, actually, we didn't bother staying long. We had to get a lift to the place of the dead. You know, I was thinking, we should make a brochure: _Happy Days With Your Favorite Eternally Tormented Spirits!_ Gee, we'd attract a ton of folks. Aren't I brilliant?

"So, Nico," Caleb said, "how do we get to the Underworld? Is it a hole in the ground or something?"

Nico looked perturbed. "No, of course not. It's over there." He pointed to the middle of nowhere.

"What do I see over there?" Sadie mused. "Hmm…well, there's some dust, some dust balls, some sand, some nothing…no Underworld."

"It's just a sheer drop of about a million feet into the Phlegethon River. It's pretty fun, actually."

"Um…excuse me for interrupting," Seth cut in, "but isn't that the River of Fire?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, just checking."

"Great, we're going to burn to death!" I exclaimed.

"What are you talking about? The fires burn, they hurt like hell, but we're in Hades, so it makes sense. Besides, they don't do any lasting damage. And with me, things should be fine. The flames have never affected me, and shouldn't affect you as long as your in contact with me."

"Oh, that's cool. Nothing like a good burn to wake you up!" Oh, that's me. My sarcastic wit should have been a clue, though.

Seth spoke again. "Uh, you know that I could just use my powers to float us over. It wouldn't be too hard."

"Oh, really?" Sadie asked. "That's cool."

Pretty soon we were all dropping into a hole in the ground. When I thought about it, I felt really bad for any mortals who just happened to walk by. Or maybe the Mist prevented them from walking there. Well, who cares? The drop down the hole took forever. Well, it seems like it, at least. Then Seth did his neat trick and we were in the Underworld, and not in the Phlegethon River. Good, I didn't want to burn to death. Or burn to death without actually dying.

"Follow me," Nico said. I decided to. After all, it's his home. His area. Or whatever you want to call it.

We started walking, but didn't get far. These really ugly-looking creatures with, like, bat wings and stuff like that flew up to us. Nico's face darkened. I had a feeling he knew who…or what…they were. Or maybe he knew them.

"You should have realized that your presence would not go unnoticed," one of them rasped.

"Shut up, Tisiphone," Nico said.

"It would not do to be so rude to your father's helpers," another said in it's ugly voice. It was then I realized who they were. The Furies. They worked for Hades, right?

"I've been rude to you before, Alecto," Nico practically growled. Ooh, he didn't like this one.

"Speaking of your father," the third said without any indication of hearing Nico, "he wants to talk to you. And your little…friends."

Nico looked like he really wished that we would avoid that. I looked at the others, who seemed scared and worried. I didn't really know what I felt. Well, a bit of confusion was high on the list.

"We hired extra help!" the third exclaimed. A few transparent-looking bats came over. Oh, they seem fun to ride.

"Megaera, we can get there on our own."

"Nonsense!" Tisiphone said.

"You better let us take you," Alecto said.

With that, the swooped down and picked all of us up like it was nothing. Nico seemed used to this form of travel, but the others were all freaked out. Like me. I was so busy being creeped out that I barely noticed a huge, transparent, three-headed dog and fields of people. Nico threw the dog a treat. Oh, that's Cerberus. Nice doggie…

We landed in a garden after a few minutes. Persephone's garden. "Don't eat anything," Nico warned us. As if. We all knew the myth. If you eat Underworld food you have to stay there forever. Maybe Caleb didn't know that, though, 'cause he was reaching up to grab an apple. I rolled my eyes.

We came up to the doors of Hades' castle. Or fortress, whatever you want to call it. It was, like, the Doors of Death. Get it? Doors of Death? We're in the Underworld and…oh, nevermind.

First, let me describe the place. The theme was obviously death. The dominant color was black, but there were plenty of jewels and lots of gold to be found. That's because Hades is also the god of wealth. The doors were about thirty or forty feet tall, only a small fraction of the height of the rest of the castle, which had turrets and balconies. There were dead sentries guarding the doors. Happy vacation spot, no?

We walked into an enormous hall. Again, the theme was death. At the end of the hall were two thrones, one of which was occupied. Hades sat in his big, black seat picking olives off of his pizza. When he realized he had guests, he just handed it to a dead person I hadn't realized was there.

Nico walked up to Hades. You know, he wears all black, and his T-shirts sometimes have dancing skeletons on them, but I could see where he got his bad dressing habits from. Hades wore a toga made out of the damned's faces. Jeez, I wonder what they did in their lifetime to deserve being part of Hades' clothes.

"Father," Nico said respectfully, bending to one knee. Sadie, Seth, Caleb and I all followed his example.

"Nico," his father said. He didn't seem particularly happy, but not mad or upset either. The expression reminded me of what Nico usually looked like, and that was a strange thought. Even though I knew Hades was Nico's father, I had never thought about the type of relationship they really shared, despite the fact the Nico had told me about it.

Hades continued. "It had been brought to my awareness that there is a demigod in my land. She was one of your…companions." He looked over at us like we were dirt. I decided I didn't like him. "Avery was her name, if I am correct. One of Hermes' kids. I should talk to him about making sure all of his children aren't evil." I remembered that Hermes had a son, Luke, whose body hosted Kronos. But he died a hero, right?

"Anyways, I have been at war, curse Zeus, but I still kept an eye on my land. She is near the Styx. She's been doing business with the Giants. And someone else you need to watch out for. Gaea. Their plan is to overtake the world when the gods are separated and at war with each other. It's a good tactic, seeing as the gods will be so obsessed with war. Athena might try to do something, but it will be in vain.

"It's your job to stop Gaea from coming back. She's one of the most ancient spirits. I can't envision the horror the world would be cast into if she came back. It would be pure chaos. Even worse than if Kronos came back. He would cause only a portion of the terror Gaea would. I can't imagine how you'll stop her, but maybe you'll surprise me."

Now, I had heard stories about Kronos and his quest to overtake the world. It had killed many. If Gaea was about twenty times worse, I couldn't imagine what we would be able to do. The others' expressions clearly showed they had the same thoughts I did.

Hades had one more thing to say. "Your only advantage is that she's not completely formed yet. Barely started. She still has plenty of power, though. Son, don't disappoint me." Nico looked like he had heard this before. "Bianca would be better suited for the job, but you might be able to handle this."

I felt bad for Nico. My mom had never liked me, but I hadn't had any full siblings, so she had never been able to compare me to anyone else. Nico seemed sad. This had probably happened before.

"Well, off you go. Don't come here if you die," Hades said. With that, we were gone.

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**A/N- As you can obviously tell, my plan to finish this fic by today is gone. Maybe next week. I still have three or four more chapters left.**

**Sorry I took forever. School just got out, and I've been going to parties and stuff…**

**Please review!**


	16. We Meet Someone We Didn't Want To Meet

**A/N- Alright, folks, time for Chapter 16! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Blah…blah…more blah…Rick Riordan own PJO…Did you know that 'blah' is actually a word?

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**Nico started leading us to the Styx. I knew I should be feeling like the world was ending, 'cause it could, but, really, I felt alright. I was about to see Avery for real again, to ask her why she had helped Gaia and the Giants. I figured I knew, but I wanted to hear it from Avery. I wanted to know why she betrayed us, and how she had been able to leave us behind. I was about to get all of my questions answered, and that's what excited me most. I was worried, sure, but I wasn't concentrating on that.

I can't exactly say that for the others, though. Sadie seemed concerned, scared, and nervous. Caleb had an expression clearly saying, '_Oh, let's get this over with_'. Seth seemed deep in thought, and also a bit worried. Nico, well…he pretty much said what he was thinking.

"I can't believe this is happening _again_!" he raved. "No, Kronos rising up wasn't nearly exciting enough. Whatever sadistic power that controls the universe really has it in for us!"

"Um…Nico?" Sadie asked. "The gods control the universe."

"No," he answered, "they control the world. Actually, the solar system. But there could still be a greater power out there. The gods existing doesn't rule out the possibility."

It seemed strange to be having this talk. I don't think he was talking about a one God, like he was Christian. Just the possibility that there was something bigger than the gods out there. Maybe that didn't have a physical presence. But I had to wonder, then, did the Fates really control what happens?

"Oh, that's stupid," Caleb said, waving off the idea. I grin a bit, 'cause, really, Caleb's the stupid one. All brawn, no brains.

"Guys," Seth said, annoyed, "I hate to break up the festivities, but we have a real problem. We have no clue what to do to stop Gaia and her little cronies." His wording seemed strange. Since when are Giants little?

"We could wing it," I suggested hopefully. Do plans ever work anyways? Not that I've ever seen. Of course, all of the plans I've seen that haven't worked have been in movies. So maybe it doesn't count.

"We should have a plan, even if it doesn't work," Nico stated. Everyone nodded. What is he, the leader? I'm starting to get really mad at him.

Nico started working out a plan. He always acts like he's in charge. It really annoyed me, but I figured the others needed to have an idea of what to do. I guess it wasn't a bad idea. Everyone contributed to the plan, so I guess we were working as a team. Seth had plenty of his own ideas, and they weren't too bad. I suppose that I was just upset with Nico 'cause he's been such a jerk. Whatever.

Since Hades had said Avery was around the Styx, we walked back to the gate, although we seriously doubted that she was right around the entrance. That was too obvious. We picked left and headed that way for a while. It was Seth who saw the cave.

It had a small entrance, and at first I didn't see how a bunch of Giants could be in it, but Seth was pretty confident. We could get in by crawling without much trouble, so we ducked under. Sadie, the first to try, pulled back instantly with an "Ow!"

"What happened?" Caleb asked, not bothering to ask her how she was first. You know, he's nearly as bad as Nico. Both are rotten.

"What he means," I cut in, "is how are you?" I shot a look a Caleb, and he sulked.

"Yeah, what she said."

"I'm fine," Sadie answered me, also giving Caleb dirty looks. "But there was a burst of electricity for a moment. It shocked me really hard."

"Great, anyone know what to do with electricity?" Nico asked, annoyed. Then quieter, he muttered, "It would be _so_ much easier with Thalia here…" I wondered who Thalia was, but didn't bother asking. Nico's weird, so I've decided to just leave him alone. Freak.

"I know a person," Seth said in a strange tone. We all turned to him, staring at him like he was crazier. Who ever speaks like that anyways? You know, Seth might even beat Nico on the weirdness scale if they entered a competition. Can you believe people think I'm the strange one? That's so not true. I mean, how am I possibly weird?

"Oh, really?" Caleb asked.

"Yep," Seth answered, "myself." I rolled my eyes, and after five minutes of chanting, freaky magic, and other boring stuff you'd never want to watch, the spell protecting the area was gone. To be sure, though, we stuck Seth down first. He was alright, and we all got in after him without problems.

Once we were in, all we could do was walk down a long hallway. It was higher than the entrance, so no one needed to crawl. It was dark again, and I was kind of wishing that Nico was there, holding my hand. Not that I would ever tell anyone that. Everything was his fault, not mine.

It was maybe a half hour before we hear something. It was just talking, and we couldn't quite make out the words. A few minutes later, the people quieted, and I heard one shout, "Wow, dude, like, somebody's here!" Well, our cover is officially blown. We drew our weapons, prepared for battle.

They were still talking, though. "Oh yeah, I hear them! I bet that they are _super _tasty! Can we eat them?!" I decided I didn't like the cannibalistic one. Although, maybe they were both cannibalistic. Not good…

There were some footsteps coming up, and I heard a sharp, feminine voice say, "No, I have another purpose for them. Just get them, it shouldn't be hard. Even for you…creatures. Bring them to Alcyoneus when your done, I'm going to take a bath. He'll know what to do with them."

Now, I should probably say the thing that most scared me about this voice: it was Avery's. I had a different tone to it, one I had never heard her use, but it was definitely Avery. The others noticed too. We all shared worried glances. Sadie's eyes must have been as wide as dinner plates. I'm sure I looked similar. I was definitely terrified enough.

"Oh, um, guys," Caleb said, "something's coming." I spun around, and sure enough, I could see shadows. I wonder why Caleb had been the one to notice. Maybe he hadn't realized that something had changed with Avery. Yikes. He sure is dense, though, so I wouldn't put it past him.

Nico started concentrating on something, a crack appeared in the floor, and a bunch of dead people started climbing out. To be honest, it scared the crap out of me. What, so now he has control over the dead? Not fair. But it actually made sense, I guess. Stupid son of Hades. The gods were actually right about them being powerful. Well, not all of them are idiots.

You can imagine my surprise when, around the corner, appear two dwarf-like creatures maybe the height of my knee. And I'm not even that tall.

"What…what is that?" I asked, taking a step closer, even though I knew it could be dangerous. Hey, I was just curious, that couldn't kill me, right? Although, I guess it killed the cat. And made Pandora unleash all of the evils into the world. But those were no biggies…

"Hey, back off!" one shouted at me. I drew back.

"Yeah," the other agreed, "back off. Or else we'll have to take you prisoners and we _all_ know Alcyoneus likes to eat his prisoners. So, yeah." I took out a short dagger and shook it at me like an old man would threaten you with a cane. I tried not to laugh, but it didn't work.

"What are you?" I asked. I figured they were probably Avery's dwarf-servants, and I wondered why she had sent them after us. We could handle them, no problem!

"We're Giants!" the first exclaimed. I giggled. The second got really mad, and started advancing towards me, fire blazing in his eyes.

"What, you don't think we're tall enough? Huh, huh? I show _you_, shorty!" Despite the serious situation, I couldn't help laughing. Right when I was about to be stabbed in the shin, even though I barely knew it, someone stepped in front of me, intercepting the blow! Gee, Nico must feel like being courageous. I noticed the skeletal warriors were gone. I suppose he felt he didn't need them.

When I bothered to stop laughing (right after Nico stepped in front of me), I observed that Nico actually had some trouble fighting the creature. They were obviously stronger than they looked, 'cause Nico's one of the best swordsman I know. With a heavy blow, the dwarf, or Giant, knocked Nico to the ground.

"Yep, Gaia's been helpin' a bit," he said, grinning lazily. I noticed the other three had moved to intercept the other dwarf, and were fighting him. While I just stood here. The dwarf we were fighting turned to face me, and I knocked an arrow. He smiled wickedly, and I let it go. It bounced right off his skin! Now I was really worried. "Yep definitely got some tricks up my sleeves," he said.

A couple of skeletal creatures rose from the ground, seriously making me think we could be in a horror movie. They took a couple of weird skeletal swords and put them around the dwarf's neck. I backed off, giving Nico a grateful look. He was off the ground.

Unfortunately, my relief was short-lived. I was bound by dirt and soil hardened it. I spit out some dust. It only took one glance to confirm my suspicion. The others were all constrained as well. No doubt Gaia's power.

Avery stepped around the corner of the cavern. She looked like she had in my dream, only with different clothes. She was wearing black skinny jeans, another expensive-looking brown and white top, and brown leather sandals. Her eyeliner was a thick brown, although it was hard to see in the dim lighting. "Hello," she said in her creepy voice with her creepy smile.

I shivered. Avery seemed so different, and I wished this hadn't happened to her. She was scaring me. None of the others said anything, but Nico snapped, and the dead people disappeared. Avery kept on smiling.

"I imagine it must be a surprise to see me like this," she said, twirling so that her hair spun around too, but still looked perfect when she stopped. The blue streak was now brown.

"We were kind of hoping not to see you at all," Caleb muttered. I grinned. You have to love how big of an idiot that guy is. Avery pretended like she hadn't heard him.

"Well, I'm just going to explain a few things, and then you're free to go." I looked at her, surprised. I was expecting her to, like, keep us prisoners or something else equally evil. The others seemed surprised as well.

"You see, there's nothing you can do. I'll be able to take over the world without interference. Those petty gods are all busy, and I can march right in without any problems. Not like I'd have any issues anyways." She seemed to be rambling, and I finally got the guts to speak up.

"Avery…what are you talking about?" She glanced at me, apparently seeming impressed I had said anything at all. So was I.

Avery sighed. "I guess I should start from the beginning, then. You already know I stole the Sword of Death. That's obvious. I brought it to the Underworld, slowly using the power in reverse to bring the Giants back from the dead. Gaia was more complicated.

"I am Gaia. Not like what happened with my idiot half-brother, Luke. He let Kronos take over his body. That's not what happening here. The best way to describe it would be a god's mortal form. That's what I'm becoming, Gaia's mortal form. But I am also Avery. I'm both of us, but we're really becoming one. Yes, I had to do the traditional bath in the Styx, which I'm telling you because I know you'll figure it out anyways.

"When I go to Olympus, I'm going to leave you here." She got right into my face. "You don't have a _chance_ of stopping me." I gulped.

"Avery, one question," Nico said. "What the _hell_ is wrong with you?" My eyes widened. Why was he such an idiot at times? He was just going to get himself hurt…

Avery went into a mad fit, almost choking Nico to death with her dirt and soil ropes. I could see his face getting paler. I wanted to cry out, but I didn't have to guts to do anything. I could tell Avery was more powerful. She was probably even telling the truth. But she didn't like us anymore, and she was killing Nico. I didn't know if it was payback for Kole's death, or something else. But I knew that if she was mad enough, she _could_ kill Nico without thinking about it.

She released him, and he gasped. I could hear him panting, and I wanted to go comfort him, but I couldn't. We were still trapped.

"That's not nearly the most impressive thing I can do, either," she said in a superior tone. "Any more questions?"

"Uh, yeah," Caleb answered. Avery spun to face him, already starting to choke him.

He managed to gasp out, "Why are…the Giants so…tiny?"

She let him go. "Oh, they aren't completely formed yet. There are twenty-two others that are, but these two didn't really do anything cool last time so they're last to form."

I barely heard all of this, though. I was still looking at Nico, worried.

"I'm going to go now, and leave you here. Maybe you should stay. Everyone you know is going to die soon anyways." Avery walked back to what I can only assume is the main chambers, and we saw a big blast of light. Dirt sprayed into the tunnel. I guess she was gone. But so were our constraints.

I ran straight to Nico, who was still having some trouble breathing. He was on the ground, and I knelt near him, sobbing. Not just because of the worry Nico had caused me and was causing me, but because of all the other problems, too.

"Nico…" I wailed, which was a bit uncharacteristic of me, "don't you _ever_ scare me like that again, alright? Never…" Then I leaned down to kiss him. I didn't bother to think about it, I just did it. Sometimes I guess you have to follow your instincts.

It was wonderful, and I felt all of my negative emotions towards him vanish. I was just glad he was okay, which is so cliché it's almost funny. I had to pull back, though, 'cause he already had trouble breathing before I kissed him. Okay, maybe that wasn't the best move, Kylie.

"What's there…to be scared…about?" Nico gasped out. I half-laughed, half-sobbed. What an idiot. But, well, not to be sentimental, but he was _my_ idiot. Oh, that was sappy, wasn't it? But you know what, I didn't really care.

I helped Nico up. I noticed Seth and Caleb weren't looking at us, but Sadie was with a look of enthusiasm on her face. I rolled my eyes. Some things never change.

Nico turned me to face him, and gave me a light kiss. I practically melted, which is stupid. I think I like Nico so much, it could be dangerous. It was more than a school-girl crush, that much was obvious. The kiss started to get deeper, but someone interrupted.

"Ew, ew, ew," I heard Caleb say. Sadie shut him up with a loud hushing noise. I could picture Seth just trying to ignore us.

Unfortunately, the damage was done and Nico and I broke apart. Seth seemed to notice and he said, "Alright, can we get going now? Remember, there's a big, evil girl trying to take over the world as we know it?" He seemed annoyed, and I grinned.

"One sec," I said, giving Nico and quick kiss. The boys rolled their eyes, but Sadie clapped her hands happily. I really do wonder about her parentage at times. I smiled cheekily at the boys, and I could picture Nico shrugging in a guy-like way to Seth and Caleb.

"Now we're good," I said. "Let's go kick Avery's butt."

* * *

**A/N- Have I ever mentioned that I hate writing endings? Well, I do. I'm not very good at them.**

**Now, this would be the part where I say sorry for not updating quickly enough, but, really, I say that every chapter, so it's starting to sound insincere. Or maybe it did a while ago. I don't know.**

**Well, please review! (I think this might be longer than all of the other chapters.)**


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